The Health Authority (1988) observed that the four most stressful occupations were:
*Nursing
*Social work
*Teaching
*Police
Stress has been linked with a wide range of physical illnesses including head aches and infectious illnesses, cardiovascular disease, diabetes; asthma .There is research into this that supports this point. For example, Cohen, Tyrrell and Smith (1991) conducted a study in which the participants were give nasal drops containing cold viruses. The researchers then determined stress levels by recording the number of life changes and individual had recently experienced, and measured to what extent the person felt “out of control”. These two factors are associated with increased stress levels. The findings show that participants who had the highest level of stress were almost twice as likely to develop colds as those with the lowest level of stress. This suggests a strong link between the two.
There is another case where it can be argued that stress and physical illness are linked. Life events are major factors in stress and what form of physical illness a person gets aft wards.
Rahe et al (1974) investigated the link between coronary heart disease and stress in Finnish CHD patients. Some of the patients survived others died. In order to monitor this, life data was collected from the patients or from the relatives of those who had died. This data showed that they had experienced an increase in life changes.
There was a way in which life evens and their effects were recorded. Holmes and Rahe (1967) examined 5000 patients’ records; from this they devised a list of 43 questions. These questions varied in seriousness .This were then made into a test that a patient could take, using just a pencil and paper, on the understanding that the answerers were to be honest. This was called the Social readjustment rating scale. Or SRRS.Patients was asked to answer these questions as to what had happened to them in the last 6-12 months.
The findings of this showed that stress is created by events which require change, e.g. loss of a spouse. Life changes can be positive and negative, but research has shown that people who have suffered many significant life changes are more likely to develop physical and mental illness.
There have also been investigations into the link of stress to Cancer. Morris et al (1981) proposed the likelihood of developing cancer maybe related to type C behaviour (nice ,industrious, conventional, sociable ,but repressed and have helplessness when regarding stress).It was thought that the cancer maybe linked to this group due to the individuals tendency to repress their emotions.Ih this study, Morris et al interview 50 women seeking treatment for a breast lump/ The patients were asses to determined their typical patterns of emotional behaviour .Morris et al found that women who found their lump to malignant had reported that they had experienced far less anger than those who were diagnosed with caner.
Friedman and Rosenman (197) found that people who where time pressured, highly stressed and prone to anger and hostility were at risk of CHD than those who were more relaxed. Type A behaviour were on the “High risk way” of behaving. 70% of those with those with CHD were classified as Type A .Later studies have found that there is a link between type A behaviour and CHD.
To conclude, I think that there is a very strong link between stress and physical illness. I believe that the research shown is sufficient, and you can see from a broad band of studies, that stress and life changes can make you feel a certain way, leading to stress. I think that the more stress a person has encountered in their life, the greater the risk of physical illness. This is due to the fact that their immune system is damaged, so that they cannot fight disease as efficiently.