A consumer's physical health can be adversely affected by high levels of debt, debt counsellors said on Tuesday.

"Doctors say that debt stress sees the body react with a 'fight-or-flight' response, releasing adrenaline and the stress hormone cortisol," said debt counsellors ConsumerAssist in a statement.

If the body stayed in this mode too long, those chemicals could wreak physical havoc, increasing blood pressure and heart rate and creating memory, mood, digestion, even the immune system problems.

People with high debt levels could have much higher rates of anxiety, indigestion, migraines and depression. They were twice as likely to have heart attacks than those with low debt.

ConsumerAssist CEO Andre Snyman said he saw evidence of sleeplessness among visitors on his organisation's website.

"Visitors drop to almost zero between 10pm and midnight, then rise sharply after midnight and are very high between 4am and 5am."

Health problems caused by debt could lead to absenteeism from work. Snyman cited a BMW plant in Germany that reduced debt amongst its workforce by 53 percent and saw a concurrent 34 percent decrease in absenteeism.

"Everyone is taking strain at present and we are all aware that the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better."

He said people were working harder and longer because they were worried about losing their jobs. Some were also taking additional jobs to make ends meet.

"We have found that staff in human resources and debt collection departments as well as call centres are often highly stressed and report increased rates of absenteeism," he added.

Sapa

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