Using employment and health data on more than 7,000 people, the study team found the more a person worried about being canned, the more likely she was to develop asthma. In fact, people who believed the odds were better they’d lose their job than keep it during the coming two years were 61% more likely to develop asthma. MORE: 10 Silent Signals You’re Way Too Stressed The researchers point to inflammation caused by stress as the likeliest culprit. “Stress may affect inflammatory processes that are relevant to asthma,” explains study coauthor Adrian Loerbroks, PhD, a social epidemiologist at Germany’s Düsseldorf University Hospital. While everyone feels a little frazzled from time to time, Loerbroks says long-term stress—the recurring kind you feel for many weeks or months—has been tied to unhealthy immune system responses, including chronic inflammation. And this chronic, heightened state of inflammation could explain how work stress leads to the development of asthma. It’s also possible that people who feel a lot of stress partake in other unhealthy behaviors—for example, smoking—that could up their risk for asthma, Loerbroks adds. How can you protect yourself? It’s possible that stress management techniques like meditation or exercise could safeguard your lungs, Loerbroks says. And if there’s any way to firm up your status as work—whether by finding a new gig or having a conversation with your boss about your job safety—that could help shield you from asthma as well as potentially protect you from other stress-related health issues, Loerbroks adds. MORE: Everything You Think You Know About Beating Stress Is Wrong
