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Do you have to work long hours? If you do you should know that you’re likely to expertise a stroke or a heart attack.
Mika Kivimäki, professor of epidemiology from the University College London, gave a statement saying that “Long working hours are common and may affect [the] vascular system”.
Professor Kivimäki and his colleagues from various European countries looked at more than half a million (528.908) people, both men and women and noticed that the subjects who worked 55 hours or more each week increased their chances of experiencing a stroke by 33 percent (33%).
The data was gathered from subjects who lived in the United States, eight (8) separate European countries, Australia and Israel. They had to tell researchers how many hours they typically spent working, and the researchers then monitored them for several years
All of the subjects were stroke-free at the beginning of the study, however 1.722 of them experienced strokes over the course of the study – seven (7) years.
And the research team did see a pattern. It turns out that the more hours a subject spent working, the more they increased their chances of experiencing strokes.
When the research team compared people who spent 41 to 48 hours per week working to people who only spent 35 to 40 hours per week working, they noticed that the subjects in the first group increased their chances of experiencing a stroke by 10 percent (10%).
When the team compared people who spent 49 to 54 hours per week working to people who only spent 35 to 40 hours per week working, they noticed even more alarming results. The subjects in the first group increased their chances of experiencing a stroke by 27 percent (27%).
But that’s not the worse of it. When the team finally compared people who spent 55 hours or more per week working to people who only spent 35 to 40 hours per week working, they noticed that the subjects in the first group increased their chances of experiencing a stroke by 33 percent (33%).
It’s important to mention that both men and women shared the same results, and that they also applied to subjects from all of the participating countries. What’s more, they remained unchanged even after the researchers took into account gender, age, body mass index (BDI), socioeconomic status, smoking history, alcohol consumption, and other control factors.
The team also tracked a group of 603.838 people who didn’t have a history of heart disease. They monitored them for eight and a half (8.5) years and noticed that over half of them (4.768) experienced some kind of coronary event, usually a heart attack.
When the researchers compared people who spent 55 hours or more per week working to people who only spent 35 to 40 hours per week working, they noticed that the subjects in the first group increased their chances of experiencing a heart problem by 13 percent (13%).
Professor Kivimäki and his colleagues theorized that people who spent more hours working don’t necessarily endanger their health because they work, but because they have less time and energy to go to the gym or play a sport.
Alcohol may also be a factor as the team believes that those who work long hours drink more cocktails, and heavy drinking is known for increasing one’s chances of experiencing a stroke.
The study was published earlier this week, on August 19, 2015, in the journal The Lancet.
Image Source: expertbeacon.com
