More than 60 Hours of Work a Week Bad for Your Heart: Study

Working for long hours can be bad for your heart, according to a study.

Past clinical researches have confirmed spending too many hours at work is not only stressful for the body and mind but also increases risk of cigarette and tobacco addiction. Doing overtime harms the body in multiple ways leading to  diseases like hypertension, high fat and cholesterol levels in body and diabetes.  A new study by the College of Medicine at Seoul National University in South Korea discovered a direct relation between heart diseases and prolonger working hours.

The experts looked at the lifestyle and working habits of 8,350 participants aged over 19 who were a part of a national survey and recorded other variables like alcohol consumption, blood pressure levels, triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein levels. In addition, they assessed subjects' risk for cardiovascular diseases using Framingham risk model, that helps predict the development of disease in certain number of years.

The findings revealed participants whose weekly working hours were between 61 to 70 hours had 42 percent higher chances of having heart diseases within a decade compared to those who worked for less than 40 hours. The volunteers also had high blood pressure and cholesterol levels which are indicators of disease, reports  Phys Org.

"These findings indicate that long working hours have adverse effects on the cardiovascular system. We hope that these findings contribute to the proper management of working conditions and enhance quality of health care for workers, particularly for those at risk for CHD." write the authors in the study.

The authors believe in investigating further as their study had some limitations and did not include genetic factors which have massive influence on disease occurrence in participants.

More information is available online in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.