If you’ve experienced work-related chronic stress—physical and/or emotional tension that lasts for weeks, months, or longer—you know the havoc it can wreak on your body. Chronic stress can cause not only debilitating everyday symptoms from fatigue to forgetfulness, but also serious long-term conditions such as heart disease and high blood pressure.
You may have even felt that chronic stress has visibly aged you, which it’s indeed capable of doing. This phenomenon is perhaps most palpable in the faces of U.S. commanders-in-chief. Compare pictures of your favorite president on his inauguration day and final day in office. Whether he served an abbreviated term or, in the case of Franklin D. Roosevelt, three full terms and beyond, you might think he grew older faster than he may have under more relaxing circumstances.
