Job loss reduces life expectancy

Working too much increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, one of the top "killers" for humans.

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Livescience said scientists from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health monitored 6,014 workers in 20 state agencies in London, England. These people range in age from 35 to 55. The follow-up process takes more than 11 years. Experts are constantly updating information about the average working time of the day, the number of breaks in the working session.

The results showed that those who worked more than 10 hours a day had 60% higher risk of cardiovascular disease than those who worked less. This rate did not change after the research team excluded other factors that could cause heart disease, such as smoking, lack of exercise, high blood fat, obesity.

Dr. Marianna Virtanen, epidemic specialist and research leader, said that among 6,014 subjects they followed 369 people with heart disease.

After calculating factors such as gender, job characteristics, marital status, age, Virtanen and colleagues found that people who work 3 to 4 hours or more are at risk for coronary artery disease. higher than the average of society. They explain the relationship between working too much with the risk of heart disease as follows:

People who work overtime often have a type A personality. The characteristics of people with a type A personality are to be competitive, easily to get angry, to easily resent others, often in a stressful state. These are factors that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Workers' blood pressure increases when they work overtime, but that phenomenon does not show up during medical visits so they do not know.

People who like to work overtime are ready to go to work even if they are sick or have health problems.

Chronic stress caused by heavy work can adversely affect metabolic processes inside the body, making the heart more vulnerable.

Virtanen emphasized that the research subjects are only office workers, no manual workers, so it cannot be said that research results can be applied to the whole society. He said that scientists need to conduct similar research for manual workers.