Financial stress is a major contributor to poor health, say academics

Worrying about finances is stressful, but just how damaging might this be to overall health?

A new study found that financial stress is potentially highly damaging to the interaction of the body’s essential infrastructure including our immune, nervous, and endocrine systems, putting it on a par with some other major stressors.

Academics at the University College London looked at major stress events such as bereavement and divorce to determine their impact on individuals as measured by concentrations of four biomarkers in blood after four years.

These stressors produced a 61% greater likelihood of being at high risk for disruption of the body’s systems which is linked to a wide range of mental and physical illnesses, from cardiovascular disease to depression and schizophrenia.

Participants who did not have other major stressors but reported financial strain - the perception that they may not have enough financial resources to meet their future needs – were 59% more likely, four years later, to belong to the high-risk group.

And the negative impact is cumulative with a 19% increase in likelihood of being high risk for each additional stressor.

Last year, a Forbes study found that 54% of respondents are always or frequently stressed because of their debt and two-thirds would consider bankruptcy as a way out.

“When the immune and neuroendocrine systems function well together, homeostasis is maintained, and health is preserved. But chronic stress can disrupt this biological exchange and lead to disease,” explained lead author, PhD candidate Odessa S. Hamilton. “We found that financial stress was most detrimental to biological health, although more research is needed to establish this for certain. This may be because this form of stress can invade many aspects of our lives, leading to family conflict, social exclusion, and even hunger or homelessness.”

The full paper was published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity.