It's already known that job stress will increase your risk for heart disease, but a new study, which will appear in the Canadian Medical Association Journal says that living a healthy lifestyle can significantly help lower that risk, according to HealthDay News.

Over 102,000 men and women between 17 and 70 years old from the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Sweden, and Finland were assessed based on risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise — or lack of — and obesity. Their lifestyles were rated as healthy, moderately unhealthy, or unhealthy.

Those with no risk factors were categorized as healthy, whereas those with one risk factor were moderately unhealthy and those with two or more were unhealthy. Almost 16 percent of the participants reported job stress.

The researchers found that over 10 years, the rate of coronary artery disease was 18.4 per 1,000 people with job stress and 14.7 per 1,000 people without job stress. They also found that the rate of heart disease for people leading unhealthy lifestyles was almost 31 per 1,000; a big difference compared to those who lead a healthy lifestyle in which the rate was 12 per 1,000 people.

The study also found that when lifestyle and job stress were factored together, the rate of heart disease for unhealthy people with job stress was 31.2 per 1,000 and the rate of disease in healthy people with stress was 15 per 1,000.

"These observational data suggest that a healthy lifestyle could substantially reduce the risk of coronary artery disease risk among people with job strain," Dr. Mika Kivimaki, of the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London, and colleagues wrote in a news release for the journal.

Sources:

Kivimaki MI, Nyberg SO, Fransson EL, et al. Associations of Job Strain and Lifestyle Risk Factors With Risk of Coronary Artery Disease: A Meta-Analysis of Individual Participant Data. Canadian Medical Association Journal. May 2013. Accessed May 13,2013.