Daily Commute May Be Killing Us

It is part of the daily grind for the vast majority of us who work. Most people take the car from home to our place of work and this is why every day the roads become clogged. No amount of shouting or waving our fists can make a difference sometimes. But perhaps we should be taking a calmer route as it could be doing more damage than just road rage.

Commuting to work could be bad for a person's health, according to a new study. Apparently there is a strong link between traffic congestion and high blood pressure it was reported. Sometimes you can feel your blood pressure rising as you are sit in your car in the middle of a traffic jam. You have no way out and the frustration at not being able to move is building, then some guy cuts you up just because he thinks your queue is going faster than his queue, and you reach your limit.

"The longer the commute, the more illness and more illness-related work absences occur," concluded the head of the research.

Stress is a side effect of the daily run to work, it added, while women were discovered to be the most susceptible to ill feeling when travelling alone. Some stress can be beneficial and it can motivate us to work. If there were no stress at all we would find it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. However, stress must be managed properly, if the levels are too high for too long this can lead to serious health problems.

The most common physical symptoms of stress are caused by our ‘fight or flight’ response left over from our caveman days. The body releases hormones which help our bodies either stay and fight or run away. However, in the car this does not really apply and the hormones simply stay in our system with no release.

In the light of this research, it may be that those with particularly high stress levels forego driving to work in order to keep a car insurance no-claims bonus intact.

If you would like to know more about driving why not ask AnswerBank Motoring.