Wednesday, December 05, 2012

The Stress Bomb

Money may not buy you happiness but it helps. However, money certainly helps you to  avoid the ill-effects of unhappiness.  A new British study that finds stressed-out rich people live longer than the stressed-out poor.

 The combination of poverty and stress "is a bomb" said study lead author Dr. Antonio Ivan Lazzarino, clinical research associate at University College London. "Those people have really higher mortality, more than you would expect by just adding the two separate effects." Having more money seemed to serve as a buffer, even when wealthier people had high levels of stress. In the other direction, it seems that "low income amplifies the adverse effects of stress," Lazzarino said. The study authors suggest that wealthier people may have better ways to manage or contain their distress and more people around them who can help.

One expert wasn't surprised by the findings. Poorer people have fewer ways to combat stress, said Glyn Lewis, professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the University of Bristol in England. "For example, if your car breaks down, then a wealthier person could afford to rent a new car or get their old one mended quickly or will have insurance for this," Lewis said. "It is much less stressful if you have the money to seek out alternatives."


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