Occupational studies of workers who have demanding jobs which require a high degree of performance, the consequences for failure in which are highly serious, such as Air Traffic Controllers, show such workers to have significantly higher blood pressure than workers doing tasks with a comparable level of physical activity. These kinds of cardiovascular changes appear to be mostly mediated by hormonal and autonomic effects.

Palpitations (sensations of a pounding heart) are a common symptom of stress. Along with tachycardia and an increased frequency of ectopic (irregular) heart beats suggest either a lowered threshold for depolarization in the myocardium, an increase or disruption of the transfer of the depolarization wave across the myocardium, or a change in S-A nodal activity.

Cortisol is released in increased quantities during stress. Cortisol has been implicated as a sensitizer of cardiac tissue to the effects of adrenaline. Cortisol levels are diurnal and peak in early morning, the time at which frequency of acute myocardial infarction is greatest and while there may be some causal link between these two events, as yet the association remains correlational only.

Evidence is also accumulating of a possible neurotoxic effect of chronic increased exposure to cortisol, which may represent a mechanism to explain reports of memory decrements in people exposed to prolonged and varying demands.