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WORKING LONG HOURS can increase your chance of developing an irregular heart rhythm, according to new research.
The research found that clocking up more than 55 hours of work a week can make people 40% more likely to develop an irregular heartbeat, known as atrial fibrillation (AF).
This is compared to people who work a normal week of between 35-40 hours.
AF is an irregular and often rapid heart rate that can increase your risk of stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications.
It happens when the electrical signals controlling the heart’s normal beat lose co-ordination. People who have it can suffer from palpitations, weakness, dizziness and confusion.
The researchers from University College London analysed the work patterns of 85,494 people from the UK, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
Participants were put into groups depending on their work hours – with 35-40 hours being considered standard – and monitored between 1991 and 2004.
During the 10-year follow-up period, there were 1,061 new recorded cases of AF.
Among those working over 55 hours a week, the figure was 17.6% higher per every 1000 people.
“These findings show that long working hours are associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation, the most common cardiac arrhythmia,” lead researcher Professor Mika Kivimaki said.
This could be one of the mechanisms that explain the previously observed increased risk of stroke among those working long hours.
He admitted that the research have some limitations, including the fact that working hours were only assessed once at the beginning of the study and that the type of job – for instance, whether it involved night shifts – wasn’t recorded.
“Obviously, monitoring of working hours over several years would be more ideal than a once off measurement at the start of the study,” he said.
“However, I do not think the results would have been dramatically different with repeat measurements of working hours because people tend to keep their working patterns.”
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So work will break your heart ?
Hardly news….
@Fake Avast: Socialism is the solution then? In any case, we don’t have capitalism- we have corporatism: Companies in bed with your beloved State. Think 55 hours is bad? Just ask a Chinese worker to see how socialism is working for him.
AF certainly can be caused by overwork and too much unrelenting pressure. More research is justified to find the point or points at which the level of long work hours starts to have an adverse impact.
Working very long hours is a miserable existence. I never want to go back to it.
Few years ago when i was 28 i was going back and forth to belgium working on month long projects for a local company…. 12 hours a day for a month each time. After 3 weeks in to the 5th project i woke up one morning with a flutter in my chest…. AF, dont think my heart has been the same since.a
I wonder is working a lot also linked to tiredness? I definitely think that is worthy of a decent study and long winded article. This is hardly news like… It’s been known for years among with the impact of shift work on circadian rhythms… Personally I blame Calvin Harris for much of it.
@Brown Boots: really? I know a lot about this field and this is the first I’ve heard of a link to AF
If you factor is the long commuting time of 1.5 hours each way then many of us spend 50+ hours with work related stress. Our life story – high ambition, work hard, burn out, move on to the next treadmill.
AF is controlable – by drugs, like beta-blockers; these help to restore rythym. Most don’t know they have it, although they should – easily identified by a basic cardio test…
@Fank Pulman: would it be better to avoid the factors which trigger AF, to the extent that it is possible, than to control it?
@Tony Daly: Google is your friend! Less working, coffee, alcohol – more exercise, better diet and genes. It won’t happen, m8. Why post about everything – being lonely is worse than AF!¡¡
Diagnosed with intermittent AF 7 years ago. I think I’ve had it for years before that. Been on a regulator tab for 10 years but now I’m going in for cryoablation. Basically, they send a wire through your major thigh vein up to the right atrium in your heart, burst through to the left atrium and using a cryoballoon freeze the 4 pulmonary vein inputs where the spurious electrical signals come in.
Like myself, It seems to affect runners, keep fit and anyone in the cardio exercise area at some stage in life.
If your in bed at night and your heart kicks in doing somersaults.. that’s it. AF.
@Sean Hyland: apologies for the your / you’re
@Sean Hyland: stand up take a deep breath in and bend over…
bit like chancing a fart the morning after 12 guinness
@james connolly:
Risky business that
@Nick Allen: you have failed often – your b/f says… ¥
What age group did working 55 hours a week cause this likely outcome?
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