STRESS has been found to contribute to heart disease, cancer and accidents.

Other studies have found that stress is as bad for women as smoking or lack of exercise, and is a major cause of women leaving their jobs or retiring early.

Stress during pregnancy can put a baby's health at risk, with distressed mothers having a higher rate of congenital abnormalities in their children.

There is even evidence that stress lowers brain cell production in adulthood.

Stress is often caused by a lack of control over the working day, combined with heavy demands. Lack of support aggravates the problem.

But the solution may not be to learn to relax or improve the way people live, but to tackle the cause of the problem where possible and try to redesign the way people work.

And Jack Harris, manager of Creative Consulting, a local business consultant and training company, has set up a course to help Bermudians and residents tackle the problems of stress in the work place.

Making Stress Work For You is a course designed to help employees and bosses find ways to deal with stress that works for them, or find ways to help themselves.

Mr. Harris said: "Every solution is different. What might work for one person, may not for another. While some may sleep through stress, others may party, and others may go into overdrive. What we have to do is find something that works for you.'' Stress can be either positive or negative. While sometimes it can be seen as a opportunity to prove yourself, it can also make the employee less efficient, making performance and productivity fall.

Sometimes the pressure can make people work better to a deadline, but the same deadlines can send the person into a blind panic where nothing is achieved.

And while to some it may give an emotional high, to others it makes them run to the cupboard for snacks or smoke or drink.

Mr. Harris' two-day workshop is aimed at helping people find ways of letting go and reducing stress by making it work for you.

"The first thing you have got to do about stress is think positively. You can say to yourself `while I cannot control every event in life, I can control what I say to myself about the experience.' There are many ways of turning something that may on the face of it seem negative into a positive thing.'' Dealing with stress Mr. Harris says there is research that shows that some negative self talk leads to stress, while a different kind of self talk leads to motivation, it all depends on how you look at a problem. In fact, what Mr. Harris is advocating is taking control of a situation to try to find a solution, as it is this lack of control that causes stress.

He said: "Everyone in every job experiences pressure. Work and pressure go hand in hand.

"There are deadlines to meet, mistakes to rectify, demands to satisfy, targets to achieve, problems to resolve, challenges to rise to. But you may find goal posts are moved, work is interrupted, working relationships become strained, there is too much or too little to do, the work stretches or bores you or the future of your job is uncertain.

"Too much pressure for too long leads to stress, unless it is managed correctly.'' And the way to deal with day to day pressure is balance.

"Having a balanced plan for a balanced lifestyle is important. Such a plan will take into account the need for work and play, for regular exercise, for diet control, for relaxation, and for building positive relationships. These steps help you reduce stress and improve your mental health.'' He said it was important to heed the signs of stress as they were indicators that there was something wrong.

And he advocates making an action plan to improve the balance in your life, by looking at your objectives and goals.

"It may mean that you are in the wrong job and should leave. It may mean you are in the wrong area in that job and should move sideways. Work out some goals and look at what you have. If you always wanted to open a book shop and that is your life's dream, you are not going to be happy working as an insurance broker.''