MPs will be able to drop-in to a special Westminster stress clinic this week.

In an ePolitix interview, Doris-Ann Williams, director general of the British In-Vitro Diagnostic Association (BIVDA) says that MPs could be classed as at high-risk of stress.

"MPs have a difficult job to do, they are working very long hours, and having to react to some very difficult situations, and quite probably not looking after themselves physically as well as they could do," she told this website.

"They are probably eating the wrong things, at the wrong hours, so they probably are subject to quite a lot of physical and mental stress - and the parameters we will be looking at are physical stress."

BIVDA has set up the stress clinic, which opens on Wednesday, to promote awareness of Men's Health Week (June 10-16).

"We thought to try and bring this to the attention of the MPs so we will be offering a 'stress clinic' - a sort of drop-in clinic for MPs to come in and be tested with a range of tests which would provide some indication as to their physical stress," said Williams.

MPs attending the clinic will be given a cardiac risk assessment, as well as being tested for diabetes, osteoporosis, helicobacter pylori and oxidative stress.

Williams rejects the view that Westminster's macho work culture will leave MPs running cared of scared of admitting they suffer from stress.

"I think a lot of people nowadays feel they are stressed," she said.

"It is a symptom of our culture nowadays where everyone is working very long hours, not eating as well as they could do, not eating enough fresh food, not having enough sleep and I think that MPs would recognise that this is very much a symptom of their own lifestyle."