Long working hours linked to high blood pressure

[ZeoBandit]

Isn't this kind of like a "Well, duh!" type of thing?


Long working hours linked to high blood pressure

POSTED: 5:17 p.m. EDT, August 29, 2006
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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- Workers who clocked more than 51 hours at the office each week were 29 percent more likely to have high blood pressure than those who worked 39 hours or less, a new study from California has found.

Nearly all past research linking long work hours and high blood pressure has been done among Asian workers, Dr. Haiou Yang of the University of California in Irvine and colleagues note in their report in the journal Hypertension.

Interest in the topic began in Japan, they add, where a notoriously high-pressure work culture has given rise to a phenomenon known as Karoshi, or "sudden death from overwork." Today, Americans work longer hours than do Japanese, the researchers add.

To investigate whether more time on the job could drive up hypertension risk among Westerners, the researchers looked at a representative sample of 24,305 California adults who worked 11 hours or more each week.

The likelihood of having high blood pressure rose steadily with the number of hours worked, the researchers found, and persisted even after adjusting for factors such as socioeconomic status and body weight.

Those who worked 40 hours per week were 14 percent more likely to have high blood pressure than people who worked 39 hours or less. Hypertension risk was 17 percent greater in those working 41 to 50 hours weekly, and 29 percent higher in those working 51 hours or more.

The researchers also found that hypertension was more common among clerical and unskilled workers than among professionals. This "suggests that occupations requiring more challenging and mentally active work may have a protective effect against hypertension," Yang and his colleagues write.

Almost all of the developed world has legislation limiting work hours, except for the United States, the researchers note.

[Filthy 150]

I was diagnosed at 27 when I worked 20-25 hours a week.

Hereditary.

[smithjc]

I tend to work long hours but so far so good. Mine's actually kinda low.

Must be all the hours I spend in this place.

[Phatie]

When I was working 90 hour weeks my resting heart rate was 92.

Now that I have no boss, my resting heart rate is 59.

Big difference.

All it would take is for one out of control manager to be publically and lawfully executed for overzealousness, and the abuse might stop.

Think of how many lives this would save!

[sisca]

wow...looks like im fucked. on top of my regular 3-16 hr shifts at the facility, i also put in about 20 hrs a week behind a bar. shit.

[TopTimi]

As a Firefighter/Medic my sked allows me good time off, however the time spent at work raises the BP big time. Try and try again with diet, exercise to lower the BP, it's tough. I think I'll have another brew while I think about other methods...hehe

[Viking]

When I worked at Cessna, I had to have my blood pressure checked periodically. I checked in at 170/110 once. I normally run on the high side of normal, 130-140/80-90 is my norm.

The nurse at Cessna told me that the reason my blood pressure was high at work, was because I was bringing stresses from home to work with me and that if I learned to leave that stuff at home, I would be okay. If it was stress from home, then why was it normal everywhere except work? Stupid bitch!