Sharecare Names America’s Most Stressed Out Cities
ATLANTA, April 23, 2014 – Everyone experiences stress to some degree, and managing it along with the everyday demands of life and work can be challenging to say the least. If your stress gets out of control, you could be faced with high blood pressure, a weakened immune system, and increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Based on data from its scientifically-based health risk assessment the RealAge Test, Sharecare, the online health and wellness engagement platform created by Dr. Mehmet Oz and WebMD founder Jeff Arnold, has identified the 10 American cities where residents are the most stressed out: Greenville, S.C.; Louisville, Ky.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Providence, R.I.; Rochester, N.Y.; Memphis, Tenn.; Oklahoma City; Tampa, Fla.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Charlotte, N.C.
“It’s relatively common knowledge that high stress can increase your risk of a heart attack, but what many don’t realize is that stress also is associated with a higher risk of cancer and, frankly, death from all causes,” says Keith Roach, MD, chief medical officer for Sharecare and co-founder of the RealAge Test. “Bottom line, stress has a negative impact on all components of aging – from your blood pressure to decisions you’ll make about nutrition and exercise.”
In fact, if you regularly experience high levels of stress, it can increase your RealAge by as much as 3.6 years if you’re a man and 2.3 years if you’re a woman.
To lower stress levels and ultimately live a longer, healthier life, Dr. Roach recommends keeping up an exercise routine, eating a healthy diet, staying in touch with friends and family for emotional support, practicing meditation or mindful breathing, and trying yoga or tai chi. For more information about how to manage and relieve stress, go to www.sharecare.com/stress.
Sharecare’s analysis also revealed the 10 American cities where residents have learned to manage what life dishes out, and keep their stress levels among the lowest in the country: Minneapolis; Raleigh, N.C.; San Francisco; San Diego; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Milwaukee; Washington, D.C.; Denver; Atlanta; and Austin, Texas.
And to find out your body’s true age, join Sharecare – membership is free – and take the RealAge Test at www.sharecare.com/realagetest.
About Sharecare
Sharecare is a health and wellness engagement platform that helps people to live healthier lives by connecting them to personalized resources including local healthcare providers, high-quality information from experts, interactive programs and clinical decision support tools, including its iOS-exclusive app AskMD. The power behind Sharecare is a unique, social Q&A format that provides the collective wisdom of America’s top experts—greatly simplifying the search for health information – and its scientifically-based health risk assessment, the RealAge® Test, taken by more than 33 million people and validated in peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE as a more accurate predictor of mortality than calendar age and the Framingham Risk Score. Created by Jeff Arnold and Dr. Mehmet Oz in partnership with Harpo Productions, Sony Pictures Television and Discovery Communications, Sharecare allows people to ask, learn and act upon questions of health and wellness, creating an active community where knowledge is shared and put into practice—simply said, sharing care. Launched in 2010, Sharecare is based in Atlanta.
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Media Contact: Kirsten McCrary
kmccrary@sharecare.com
404.389.4024
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