Working longer hours increases stroke risk

21 August 2015 - 02:18 By ©The Daily Telegraph

It is said that hard work never killed anyone, but a new study suggests that staying late at the office could have a deadly impact on health. Working just one extra hour a day increases the chance of suffering a stroke in the next eight-and-a-half years by 10%.People who toil away for 55 hours a week raise their risk by a third.Those who spend longer hours at work were also more likely to develop heart disease, the study, published in the medical journal Lancet, found.It is thought that the stress of long hours can trigger biological changes in the body which, over time, can lead to deadly disease."Health professionals should be aware that working long hours is associated with a significantly increased risk of stroke, and perhaps also coronary heart disease," said Mika Kivimäki, professor of Epidemiology at University College London.Researchers looked at 25 studies involving more than 600000 people across Europe, the US and Australia who had been followed for an average of 8.5 years.The higher risk remained even when taking into account factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and lack of physical activity, factors often associated with stressful jobs and longer hours.Crucially, the study showed that the longer people worked the higher their chance of having a stroke became.Compared with people who worked standard hours, those working between 41 and 48 hours a week had a 10% higher risk of stroke, and those working 49 to 54 hours had a 27% increased risk.Working 55 hours or more a week was linked to a 33% greater risk of stroke.Though the researchers could only say that long hours were "linked" to strokes, health experts said it was "plausible" that the stress of working too hard was to blame. They urged doctors to take extra care to check for signs of heart problems in those with the most demanding jobs. ..

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