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Do High-Stress Jobs Increase Your Chances of Having a Stroke?

Summary: Is there a way you can ease the stress from your job without having to quit?
Air Date: 12/4/15
Duration: 10
Host: Leigh Vinocur, MD
Guest Bio: Diana Fite, MD
-1Dr. Diana Fite of Houston, Texas, is an emergency physician. She also served for more than 20 years as part-time clinical assistant professor for the emergency medicine residency program at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

In 1995, Dr. Fite became the first female president of the Texas College of Emergency Physicians and the first and only and emergency physician to serve as president of the 12,000-member Harris County Medical Society. In both roles, she raised the visibility of emergency medicine and championed issues of importance to the emergency physicians and patients. In 2013, Dr. Fite received the prestigious James D. Mills Award for Outstanding Contribution to Emergency Medicine from the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Dr. Fite grew up in the Texas Panhandle and earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. In 2007, Dr. Fite was driving her car in Houston when she experienced a stroke.
Do High-Stress Jobs Increase Your Chances of Having a Stroke?
Stress can be found everywhere and it can be extremely dangerous to your health. Escaping stress isn't easy, especially if it's from your job. 

A recent study found that having a high-stress job can increase your chance of having a stroke, especially if you're a woman.

The meta-analysis, which was published in Neurology, looked at six studies involving 138,782 participants over a span of three to 17 years.

Out of the 138,782 participants 11-27 percent had high-stress jobs and had a 22 percent higher risk of stroke than those with low-stress jobs.

What can you do to help lower your stress?

Dr. Fite joins Dr. Leigh to discuss the correlation of high-stress jobs and stroke and how you can help ease your stress.