A team from the Universities of Cambridge, Bristol, and the University College London’s Social Research Institute find that both education and job stresses during a person’s late teens and early 20s can predict who will or won’t suffer from heart trouble 20 years later. Moreover, researchers say these early experiences in the working world actually have a stronger link to heart health during middle age than that same person’s current job when they reach their 40s.
Researchers looked at the health records of more than 12,000 people in the 1970 British Birth Cohort during their study. The team then used a data-driven method to separate these individuals into different socioeconomic groups, depending on how much education they had, their job type, and how long they were unemployed between the ages of 16 and 24. Study authors then compared these results to each person’s cardiovascular risk factors at age 46. These measures included blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and waist circumference.
The results show that young workers who spent a longer time in school and quickly went into a professional or managerial role as a young adult displayed better cardiovascular health 20 years later. Interestingly, this link isn’t completely due to certain workers having a higher income or better job at age 46.
In fact, study authors believe their findings show that economic factors during middle age don’t contribute to the link between a young adult’s socioeconomic trajectory and future health. Instead, the authors believe companies and workers need to start paying more attention to stress, depression, and job demands on young employees.
“We found that an individual’s education and employment experiences in early adulthood had a far larger impact on measures of cardiovascular health more than twenty years later than their occupation or income at that time did,” says first author Dr. Eleanor Winpenny.
This seems like great news to share with my students. Most of the students I interact with spend four years earning a bachelor’s degree, and then take an entry-level, professional position, in their field of choice.
It seems to be exactly what this study is calling for in terms of helping young people get off to a good start, which will reap healthy benefits as they start to approach middle-age.
The only concern I have, and this was highlighted both by COVID and the Olympics, is that many young people feel a great deal of stress, and that needs to be addressed. Despite seeming to have it all, many of these young adults are feeling a lot of pressure, which puts a lot of stress on their health.
So I think in addition to preparing these young people to successfully transition into a professional position, we need to also prepare them on how to avoid and manage stress.
Such a combination would likely reap significant benefits twenty to thirty years down the road. That is an age when many people are feeling the stress of homeownership, having children of their own, and career management.
If they have been taught how to successfully cope with such stressors, it should make it easier for them to manage such situations, and successfully move on to the next stage of their life.
All this seems to suggest that stress management should be part of everyone’s education. I’ve had a meditation expert visit my classes several times, but missed out last year because of COVID. It seems like it’s time to bring him back…
source: StudyFinds
I totally agree about the importance of teaching young people how to handle stress. Stress definitely plays a big role in heart problems!
Though genetics play a big role too, especially in our family.
You should bring Tippy in as a guest speaker for your class on meditation, didn’t he write a book about that?? 😉
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I don’t think my students are ready for Tippy!
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😂
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If they are not ready, then this would be the perfect time for me to teach them.
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the teacher will appear when the student is ready… 🙂
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Oh yeah, I forgot about that saying.
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😊
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I totally agree with your idea of preparing young people to handle stress. I’m not sure about the study though unless the researchers can explain their conclusion.
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My sense of the results is that the earlier you can avoid stress and get started off on the right foot, the better your health will be down the road…
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Yes, but why and how does that have such a big effect years later? My suspicious nature thinks that other factors also might be responsible, and knowing how the effect works would probably have many other applications too. I’m not sure that physical exercise in early adulthood alone would result in better cardio health 20 years later.
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Perhaps if people are able to establish good habits early on, you are more likely to continue those good habits later in life.
But I see your point; there are a lot of factors that affect one’s health at an older age…
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I certainly wish someone had prepared me for handling stress as it was not something I was ever good at. And these days I think stress levels for young people are much higher than in my day. I think they should teach yoga starting in elementary school onwards. I believe there has been limited studies or testing of this. If not, there should be. It would go a long way towards stress management.
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Great suggestion; some type of mindfulness training, whether through yoga, meditation, or other type of stress reducer would be incredibly helpful to teach students at a young age…
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Learning to cope with stress is a great life skill for everyone, but especially children and young adults right now.
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I agree; I think children and young adults are under more stress than we recognize…
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Stress is the great equalizer as far as health goes. I have been sick for all about two days in five years. Before that, my track record was decent when I was young, but as the stress continued to increase and the pounds crept on, my health kept deteriorating. The good news is that we can regroup if we have the self-discipline and commitment to love ourselves.
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you are a great example that if we set our mind to it, it is possible to achieve better health!
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It was stressful being that age, unless you go hitch hiking round the world without a care for the future. Many of us faced total uncertainty about careers, will we find a life partner, where will we live….
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it is a stressful time, but I think there is pressure to act as if you don’t have a care in the world at that age…
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I think part of the problem is the accepted patenting technique of insuring our kids never face any stress or negativity when they are young. Suddenly, they are thrust into an adult world full of such things and have learned very few coping skills. It may be impossible to avoid stress, but you can always learn to handle it better, assuming you are exposed to it at a time when there are those to offer counsel.
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great point, Brad. Just like it is good to establish a strong work ethic at a young age, I think it is important to establish some stress management techniques at a young age as well. And you are right, it is best to do so when you have an available support system, such as family and school…
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So true! We think we are protecting our kids when we do that but we are actually hurting them. We have to let them fall at times, so that they know how to get back up!
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great way to say it, Carolyn!
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But it isn’t always easy to do! Its why parenting causes gray hair!
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so that’s why I had gray hair so early! 🙂
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Yup! Of course there is this thing called hair dye, which helps with that. LOL!
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the odds of me ever using hair dye are 0… 🙂
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Haha! Just saying… I think your students would get a kick of seeing you in blue hair. 🙂
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maybe on my very last day of teaching… 🙂
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Great idea! Go out with a bang! 😄
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and people will be saying “it’s a good thing he’s retiring…”
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They would probably say, “It finally happened, his students made him lose his sanity!:
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and my former students would be saying “I thought he retired years ago…” 🙂
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Could not agree more. Thank you, Joy!
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👍
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A little stress at that age is necessary or the child won’t leave the home and head out on his or her own. There is stress that comes with each decision, and some can impact a life forever – job, marriage, etc. Oftentimes these seem like inconsequential decisions at the time, and they are often made on an immediate need basis like should I move in with my boyfriend who I’m visiting out of town or come back to my home town because I just got the news I got a job interview. There are so many factors that go into determining our cardiovascular health at any age, I’d want to see more data. It’s hard not to get wrapped up in the immediate needs of every day, but especially when you’re a kid. Going to college slows that immediacy down and allows kids to process their choices both for jobs and for a spouse. 🙂
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well said, Marsha. I think it is important to learn how to handle stress, the sooner the better. And while there is value in learning from our mistakes, there is also value in avoiding those mistakes, especially the big ones. And you are right, there are many factors that impact our heart health, stress being just one of them…
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It is an interesting theory. A lot of things are in place to slow down the impetuousness of youth. education is one of them Their frontal lobes aren’t completely in tact and they make rash decisions – like having sex, getting married, using drugs, fighting, causes ie riots – all of which they think will make them grown up, but greatly impact their health at a later date. So in my opinion it’s better to give them some artificial and healthy stressors – which activities to be involved in, how to meet deadlines for their assignments, etc.
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I remember the term eustress, the idea of beneficial stressors, which you seem to be describing..
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What a great word. I like that. I would never have made it through life without some eustress. I’m too easy going. 🙂 ie lazy!
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same here; who would have thought that stress could be good!
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Otherwise, why exercise? It stresses our bodies. Mine is stressed right now, so I’m relaxing and eating more ice cream. 🙂
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great point about exercise; like they say, no pain, no gain. and ice cream is always a good reward…
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It’s a stress reliever. 🙂
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👍
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What a great idea to have a meditation expert join your class! I’ve always felt like more job places need to incorporate a piece of real, tangible wellness to their work culture… Not just say it but do it.. And I don’t mean just a retreat once a year for team building but like you did, bring in a meditation expert and wellness coaches etc.
As I’ve aged, I’ve quickly noticed how stress can really hinder one’s growth, mental wellness and health. It’s important to address it early on.
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the students really enjoyed having the class on meditation. plus, anything is better than talking about accounting! 🙂
and I agree, stress management is a critical life skill that should be taught, the sooner the better…
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Do you teach accounting? My husband is an accountant 🙂
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yes, I’ve been teaching accounting for 35 years. I hope your husband has enjoyed his career as an accountant!
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He has enjoyed it bc it all comes very easy for him! 🙂
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it is nice when that happens; I wish I could say the same for my students (and so do they!)
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I didn’t have the luxury of waiting until I’d finished college to get a cushy job. Some of those early jobs weren’t exactly fun, but I did what I needed to do and I survived. So no regrets.
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It sounds like you learned the value of hard work at a young age, as well as learning how to be an adult… such skills have lifetime benefits…
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Probably. Haha.
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interesting. my school decided to pay early career teachers more than they had, and having them way a long time to work their way up the pay ladder, realizing that they had so much stress at the beginning and to worry about finances would only cause more stress. it has been a wonderful initiative –
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that does sound like a wonderful initiative, and very forward thinking…
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it really makes sense, many have recently completed school, paying back loans, maybe having changed careers, finding somewhere to live and get settled or moving into the real adult and independent stage of their lives
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talk about a stressful time!
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O.K., I vote for stress management to be part of everyone’s education.
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then it’s settled…
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Why can’t we be in charge? At least you have been proactively inviting a meditation expert to your classroom.
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I like your can-do attitude!
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Relevant topic! I feel blessed with being in fairly good health at 65. I can now see where my career choice and its inevitable journey helped me to avoid too much stress. Hindsight is always 20/20. Your students will benefit from more input about this.
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I also feel like I got lucky with a job that does not have as much stress compared to others, and I have reached my 60s fairly healthy…
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Hi Jim, I have always been a perfectionist and with that comes a lot of stress. My boys are the same. Stress management should be taught in schools. It should be part of the life skills programme.
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I couldn’t agree more about having stress management taught in schools. It seems like you have found ways to manage your stress quite well…
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I have stepped back over the past year, Jim, from a work perspective. I had very high blood pressure last year from all the stress and overwork. I am enforcing my reduced hours as much as possible now and I have an assistant at last.
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Tht’s good to know that youw ere aware of the health issue and you have been proactive about doing things to get it under control. Good luck!
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Very good advice
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Wise words, as always jim. Cheers
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thanks, Peter!
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