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Here's a reason to consider switching your current vocation: Young female employees who suffer from too much pressure at work can significantly increase their risk of developing ischemic heart disease.

Although previous research has linked workplace stress and job strain to heart disease risk, many of those studies focused on men. Now a recent study from Denmark have proven that it applies to women as well. Ischemic heart disease occurs when blood flow is restricted to the heart muscle. Known as the "silent killer," it is estimated that as many as 4 million Americans may have ischemic episodes and not be aware that they have this condition because they do not experience symptoms:

Reporting in the May 6 issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, researchers at Glostrup University Hospital in Denmark looked at more than 12,000 female employees aged 45 to 64 who were part of the Danish Nurse Cohort Study and were followed for 15 years, from 1993 to 2008. The median age of the participants was 51.

The nurses filled out questionnaires about health, lifestyle, and occupation. The researchers took into account factors including work pressure, psychosocial work environments, job influence, occupational characteristics, such as the level of physical activity performed while on the job, and biological and behavioral factors such as smoking, body mass index, drinking alcohol, and family history of disease.

Sixty percent of the nurses interviewed said work pressure was much too high or a little too high. Over the course of the study, 580 women were admitted to the hospital for ischemic heart disease; among those women, 369 cases were angina, 138 were heart attacks, and 73 were other cases of ischemic heart disease.

[WebMD]