Overtime Hours Adversely Affect the Heart

Scientists may have just added another negative side-effect to the list of consequences associated with working overtime. They say that not only people's mental healthy and sanity are affected, but also their hearts. The correlation is especially true for those who tend to work overtime many times per week. These conclusions were derived from an 11-year study, which was conducted on more than 6,000 individuals. Of special interest to researchers were individuals who worked more than ten hours a day, reaching up to 12 or 14 hours, LiveScience reports.

At the end of the study date, the science team determined that those who worked overtime had a 60 percent higher risk of developing heart conditions over the time span of the research than those who did not work overtime. The group says that people who did not cut themselves some slack had a higher rate of death due to various conditions of the heart. The same group also registered a significantly larger percentage of non-lethal heart attacks, a fact that again proves the direct link between working overtime, and the health status of the human heart.

In order to get the most conclusive results, the investigators also accounted for other risk factors that might have been at work in the test participants, such as smoking, being overweight, or having high cholesterol levels. Arguably, people who work overtime are also subjected to elevated amounts of stress, which is known to lead to the rapid deterioration of the human body. The scientists, based at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki, highlight the fact that their investigation does not establish a direct causal link between the two, but only that an association exists. More studies are needed in order for a clearer conclusion on this issue to be drawn. Details of the work were published in the latest issue of the esteemed European Heart Journal.

“Physicians should be aware of the risks of overtime [work] and take seriously symptoms such as chest pain, monitor and treat recognized cardiovascular risk factors, particularly blood pressure, and advise an appropriate lifestyle modification,” Gordon McInnes writes in an accompanying editorial to the new paper. He is based at the University of Glasgow, in the UK, where he holds an appointment as a professor of clinical pharmacology. “If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considers work important.” he writes in the editorial, quoting English philosopher Bertrand Russell.