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Long Working Days Can Cause Heart Problems, Study Says (theguardian.com)

According to a major new study, long days at the office can be bad for your heart. While the risk of stroke is increased from working too many hours in the office, it seems that working more than 55 hours a week means a 40% higher chance of developing an irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation), when compared to those with a better work-life balance. The Guardian reports: The research team, led by Professor Mika Kivimaki from the department of epidemiology at University College, London, analysed data on the working patterns of 85,494 mainly middle-aged men and women drawn from the UK, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Participants were put into groups according to their work pattern, with 35-40 hours a week regarded as the control group. No one had AF at the start of the study, published in the European Heart Journal. After 10 years of follow-up, an average of 12.4 per 1,000 people had developed AF, but among those working 55 hours or more, this figure was higher at 17.6 per 1,000 people. Those working the longest hours were more overweight, had higher blood pressure, smoked more and and consumed more alcohol. But the team's conclusions about longer working hours and AF still remained after taking these factors into account.

75 comments

  1. Who Knew ;) by oldgraybeard · · Score: 2

    I am 61 and I just did a no sleep 24+ crashed at 6pm the next day and woke at 2300 hrs (so 5 hours of sleep) guess i should worry ;) But then again i drink a pot of coffee a day ;) lol

    1. Re:Who Knew ;) by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I hope you are getting rich and not someone else off your hard work.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Who Knew ;) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope you are getting rich and not someone else off your hard work.

      good luck with that ... we're just a society of wage slaves

    3. Re:Who Knew ;) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, not too much longer and you'll be dead. Keep up the good work!

      Hugs and kisses,

      Juan Epstein

    4. Re:Who Knew ;) by PeeAitchPee · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I know this is hard for some people to grasp, but there are other reasons to work hard besides "getting rich." The happiest people I've met are those who get to do what they love every day. When you find yourself in that position, working crazy hours and getting immersed in trying to figure something out for days on end, and then actually accomplishing something real *is* a very big part of it. Rich people can't buy that feeling -- it has to be earned.

    5. Re:Who Knew ;) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People who genuinely love their job probably have less of an effect from it too, because it doesn't stress them out in the same way. It'd be like doing a hobby which people do in their spare time as a job.

    6. Re:Who Knew ;) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Ah yes. "If you love your job you'll never work a day in your life."
      Bullshit.
      I like my job just fine. I work around tons of great, dedicated, hard working people who know what they are doing and never shirk. There isn't a single person at my job who would pass up a vacation day or who would give up a moment of time with their families for a day on the job.
      To everyone who says "Work is play if you like your job", I reply "No one ever lay on their death bed and wished they had spent more time working"

    7. Re:Who Knew ;) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem is that unless you are perceived as rich then you are assumed to be exploitable. People with little or no money have no security and need to work to survive - that world makes people exploitable. Rich people that are doing what they enjoy stand a much better chance of finding meaning in their work.

      What would you do if you didn't need to worry about money?

    8. Re:Who Knew ;) by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      You could have developed an irregular heartbeat and not even know it, there are many people who walk around their entire lives with conditions like that and never know it unless someone hooks them up to an ECG and looks at it -- or it develops into a much worse problem and they end up in the hospital. Or you could just manage your overall stress levels well enough that you've got no such problems. No way to tell without some sort of diagnostics.

    9. Re:Who Knew ;) by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      You're talking about 'having a sense of purpose', and too many people just plain don't -- or they have chosen the wrong purpose, or their 'purpose' has been twisted and subverted into something bad.

    10. Re:Who Knew ;) by zifn4b · · Score: 1

      I know this is hard for some people to grasp, but there are other reasons to work hard besides "getting rich." The happiest people I've met are those who get to do what they love every day. When you find yourself in that position, working crazy hours and getting immersed in trying to figure something out for days on end, and then actually accomplishing something real *is* a very big part of it. Rich people can't buy that feeling -- it has to be earned.

      No hubris in your post at all. Yes we know Confucius once said "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." The reality is, how many people can find a paying job doing what they love? Not very many it turns out.

      And you know, it turns out that you don't need to get paid to do work you love either. The problem is though if you have bills and you choose to do work that doesn't provide a source of revenue, you get to live as a homeless bum on the street after you get sued into oblivion and lose all your possessions.

      Let's refine your point. There is a need for money to pay taxes, bills, buy food, etc. And there is work. There is paid work and there is not paid work. Both paid work and not paid work can yield a sense of accomplishment and we find from the data that it's the non-paid work that more often gives you that sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. Why? Because you don't have to compromise with paying fucking bills that's why. The problem is we don't live in a world that affords us that luxury unless you work real hard, you invest your money wisely and have it pay you guaranteed income and then you can do whatever the hell you want. For many of us, that "work" would be some very serious projects that would yield a great sense of fulfillment and accomplishment and maybe even help our fellow man. It's too bad we have to do a lot of useless, mundane work like creating TPS reports to pay the bills.

      Want to talk about that problem? What's the solution to that one spanky?

      --
      We'll make great pets
    11. Re: Who Knew ;) by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I dunno. Surely someone has thought that. Perhaps their death was due to obesity or atrophy? Maybe they were leaving their family in debt?

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    12. Re:Who Knew ;) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd say that was merely an effective campaign by the company to get someone "passionate" to work unreasonable hours.

      The simple fact is, if you're not working for yourself, you are producing more capital than you get back (because a company wouldn't keep you around unless you made them more money than it costs to pay you, incl. benefits if you're American and lucky).

      Accomplishment can be had outside corporate walls, and it won't be hamstrung by policy, bureaucracy, politics, or the profit motive.

      Sure, we can tell ourselves the guy doing what he loves for a living isn't being exploited, but anyone paying attention knows exactly what's going on: psychology. Workers are manipulated, and corporations use every tool they can to make it happen. Working for another person fills their pocket far more than it will yours.

    13. Re: Who Knew ;) by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the more I think about this, the more I'm sure someone has. Picture a person who didn't tend their crops, or someone who was convinced they could have worked their way out of the potato blight. Yeah, I bet lots of people died wishing that they had worked more.

      Some dude plummeting to their death when their chute didn't open? Probably wishing they had worked more to learn how to pack their chute better. Industrial accident? Probably wishing they'd worked harder in school and had a white collar job.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    14. Re:Who Knew ;) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're still doing death-marches at 61 (and you don't like doing them), you're way too lenient to who ever employs you.

      If someone asks me to do a death-march they can go fsck themselves (or pay triple rate).

    15. Re: Who Knew ;) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course someone has! Don't be silly. People are ignorant selfish slobs with a species-base IQ that would make an ostrich cringe. It is inevitable that you could, if you interviewed everyone everywhere for all time, find someone who has thought that.

      You would need to look for an awfully long time, though. People who think that are pretty thin on the ground.

    16. Re: Who Knew ;) by KGIII · · Score: 1

      If I get the chance on my deathbed, I'm going to think that exact thought. I'm even going to tell someone that I'm thinking it - assuming I'm able. We'll nip this stupid expression, right in the bud.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  2. Slacking Off causes Termination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Termination of income can cause starvation and death.

    Enjoy being well-rested while you die.

    1. Re:Slacking Off causes Termination by schleimkeim · · Score: 1

      Termination of income can cause starvation and death.

      Only in a few countries.

    2. Re:Slacking Off causes Termination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get off Slashdot and get back to work!!

      -Your boss

    3. Re:Slacking Off causes Termination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So I guess the millions of homeless and hungry people in America don't count, huh?

  3. Seattle Hundreds cause health problems... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    who would have thunk that?

    1. Re: Seattle Hundreds cause health problems... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In other news, water is wet and the Pope is Catholic.

  4. From the NSS Institute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is a known fact, has been known, has been studied, and is not only common knowledge but also common sense. Another waste of time and money from the No Shit Sherlock Institute of Bloody Obvious Conclusions.

    1. Re:From the NSS Institute by war4peace · · Score: 1

      Wait, that doesn't properly translate to the acronym "BeauHD".

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    2. Re:From the NSS Institute by Viol8 · · Score: 2

      You're assuming this connection hasn't been studied before. Its been studied for decades and there are dozens of papers, the OP is correct.

    3. Re:From the NSS Institute by Keith_Beef · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Except that for the past few decades, the medical establishment has been shouting "factory workers die of heart attacks because they fry their food in lard and the cholesterol blocks their arteries".

      Now that medical research is starting to show that vegetarian office workers are suffering from heart problems, the focus is shifting.

      What I have suspected for a long time (I grew up in a working class environment, many neighbours and family members were shift workers in steel and manufacturing industries) is now being confirmed.

      Stress (poverty, uncertainty about the future, circadian rhythms disrupted by shift work, danger of accidents, macho culture and violence) exacerbated by the self-destructive "coping strategy" of over-consumption of alcohol ("getting a skinful on Friday and Saturday nights") damages the heart muscles, among other things. Over-consumption of refined carbohydrates (white flour and white sugar especially) play havoc with our metabolism, too.

      Salt, dietary cholesterol and animal fats are not the causes that they were claimed to be, and this truth is finally coming out.

      Gary Taubes has done a great job in bringing these truths to the public, but there is still much work to be done.

    4. Re:From the NSS Institute by Kjella · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Meh, truth is you're probably going to die roughly when it's time. I checked the stats here in Norway not that long ago and 70% of the population (from 80% to 10%) die between ages 75 and 95. Of the early deaths there are many due to suicide, traffic accidents and other non-medical conditions, more still due to excessive use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco with a lot of alcohol-induced stupidity leading up to the former. The rest mainly show up as "statistical" diseases, yes if you carry 10 kg too much all your life your heart will work slightly harder and you will give up the ghost a bit sooner. The question is what do you gain and what do you lose by always living the "right" life, if it's only chopping off a bit when you're old and frail anyway.

      In fact, if you baseline the "invariant" death rate based on ages 1-45 (excluding 0-1 as a few are born with fatal defects) only about 4% die from things that would kill a young person, 96% of us at least partially die from old age. Old age and cancer. Old age and heart failure. Old age and respiratory failure. Old age and "harmless" diseases. We're getting constantly better at curing the specific ill that threaten an old person's life but we're not really addressing the accelerating frailty inherent in old age meaning that at some point even a stiff breeze will send you over the edge. And that curtain call is coming no matter how much clean living you do, though there's no reason to kill yourself prematurely there's also no point in thinking it'll give you more than a few years.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    5. Re: From the NSS Institute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Neither the poster you replied to not the paper itself make the claim that the connection between work load and heart disease has been unexplored. Now how many of those previous studied involved specifically AF vs other heart problems? How many of those are based on long term follow up vs other methods? What were the sample sizes and from what country and decade were those samples from, since the significance of such effects can depend on culture?

      And even if there were multiple identical studies, that is sometimes what is necessary in medicine (and science in general).

    6. Re:From the NSS Institute by jandersen · · Score: 1

      You're assuming this connection hasn't been studied before. Its been studied for decades and there are dozens of papers, the OP is correct.

      No, I'm referring to the fact that scientific research in the vast majority of cases studies something that has already been studied before. Often the reason is to build up statistical reliability, but it always originates from the fundamental truth, that experiments do not prove a theory; you can falsify, but never prove. Also, although the header says 'Long working days can cause heart problems", the actual theory they refer to, will be probing one or more angles in more detail - like, is it because people sit down all day? Is it because of the stress? The exposure to poor, indoor climate? And so on. As another example, take the theory that masses attract each other according to a certain formula first proposed by Isaac Newton; there are still experiments being carried to this day to confirm this, and they are not all demonstrations to students. Very often the researchers are trying to measure the gravitational constant more precisely, or they are trying to do it with a new technique. I mean, how many times has this experiment been carried out already in the last 300 years? But it is still relevant; science is never finished, only religion claims to give final answers.

    7. Re:From the NSS Institute by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      70% of the population (from 80% to 10%) die between ages 75 and 95

      Yeah, but what that doesn't tell you is what their quality if life was like. I'd rather live to 65 and be healthy and active than live to 95 but spend 30 years in pain or with dementia.

      Actually even if I do only live to 65 it will be more than 30 years in pain, since I already started. That's a depressing thought.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:From the NSS Institute by dj245 · · Score: 1

      This is a known fact, has been known, has been studied, and is not only common knowledge but also common sense. Another waste of time and money from the No Shit Sherlock Institute of Bloody Obvious Conclusions.

      The CDC published a rather good metastudy of cardiovascular and other health issues possibly caused by long working hours back in 2004. Direct PDF link

      --
      Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
    9. Re:From the NSS Institute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You'd expect an editor to be able to use correct spelling and grammar.

      Not really, /. has been lowering the bar on editing since day one.

      If anything the alleged editors crank up the errors deliberately to increase post counts because of people whining about errors.

    10. Re:From the NSS Institute by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      Indeed. From your words, my guess would be you live in UK or a commonwealth country; my second guess is that your nations are more like ours than they used to be: No one has ANY job security and people live with a high stress level ALL the time. It's no surprise that life expectancy is dropping, not rising.

    11. Re:From the NSS Institute by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      MOD Parent up.

      I came here to see if they had done any control for the amount of time people were sitting at their jobs. If they didn't then the entire story is misleading.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    12. Re:From the NSS Institute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not really, /. has been lowering the bar on editing since day one.

      Hence my follow up sentence.

  5. LIFE IN THE FAST LANE SURE MAKE YOU LOSE YOUR MIND by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So take it easy when you ponder your answer to this.

    What did Billie Joe and his girlfriend throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge, and why did Billie Joe commit suicide?

  6. Re:I'm skeptical by EzInKy · · Score: 0

    Obviously because people of color work harder and longer.

    --
    Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
  7. Re:I'm skeptical by war4peace · · Score: 1

    Genetic differences, I'd guess.
    A couple years ago I was talking to a sports medic, he said they have different charts and thresholds for different races because of genetic differences. i believe the proper word is phenotype? Genotype? Something-something.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  8. Re:LIFE IN THE FAST LANE SURE MAKE YOU LOSE YOUR M by Gay+Kwanzaa+Darkie · · Score: 0

    The current theory is one of these.

    And it wasn't suicide. It was infection from it snapping in half for being cheap Chinese trash while it was being used. In those days, it would have been REAL embarrassing to go to the hospital for that!

  9. Correlation or Causation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Is it because of
    A) the long hours spend there (presumably on your chair), or
    B) your boss shouting at you to get this done by Date X or being fired, or maybe
    C) not getting enough sleep to normalize your cortisol levels, or
    D) not having time to go workout, or perhaps
    E) some of all of the above?

    1. Re: Correlation or Causation? by ChristianKoehler · · Score: 1

      Unhealthy food rushed at railway stations, pizza while working with the pc... And all you mentioned.

  10. Re:I'm skeptical by Gay+Kwanzaa+Darkie · · Score: 0, Funny

    We have larger penises which take two to three quarts of blood to fill when fully erect. That means that when we aren't having sex, our blood pressure is ridiculously high because the blood is forced elsewhere. Hehehe

    --GKD--
    (and yes, I am actually black)

  11. mynutswon: just don't call it censorship.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    or us droids... poor spelling?... sing along.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO8vly4PiKQ

  12. Re:I'm skeptical by Keith_Beef · · Score: 1

    Do they?

    It's quite possible that they do, but you'd have to post a link to a paper (not hidden behind a paywall) supporting that affirmation.

  13. Nothing new under the sun by Kergan · · Score: 5, Informative

    They could have asked Japan (or Korea, or China) to learn about documented death by overwork:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  14. Re:I'm skeptical by Kergan · · Score: 2

    Possibly because, often being poorer, their typical diet doesn't match the diet of a typical white.

  15. This here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is exactly why Trump won.

  16. Forget correlation/causation. Sample bias? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 0
    If there is any truth to the claim, Japan must be the country with the highest incidence of heart diseases.

    They assign young engineers to assist our team to do translation etc, and these guys show up 7:30 in the morning at the hotel room, stay with them till 10:30PM, and then show up fresh as a daisy next day morning 7:30. They seem to spend 12 hours a day at work.

    Panasonic actually implemented a policy limiting its workers to 80 hours a week.

    One possible conclusion could be Europeans are lazy and they get apoplectic shock if they are asked to work for more than 35 hours a week.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Forget correlation/causation. Sample bias? by hughbar · · Score: 4, Informative
      --
      On y va, qui mal y pense!
  17. Is that a long working day? by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    Is that a long working day or a long day browsing SlashDot with some work in between?

  18. Re:I'm skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    sounds like something a black man with a tiny dick and inferiority complex would say

  19. Genetics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's not a shock, but at the same time it's a little too easy to translate that to "stop working long hours or you'll die younger." The question is what would you be doing in those extra hours if you had it? Lie around the pool? Watch TV? Train for a marathon?
    I think most of this is driven by how you manage stress and genetics. No question if you feel constantly under (bad) stress at work, the longer you spend there the worse for you. When I went from taking a couple of years off to working a solid 44 hour week that is classic high stress, my blood pressure went *down*. My doctor told me that despite the fact that my job is high pressure (VFX supervision, managing many tasks at once plus also producing shots myself), it's pretty obvious I actually enjoy it and I don't let the stress become "bad" stress. It's not some Tony Robbins bullshit life path thing, I'm just lucky that I'm wired that way.
    I think fundamentals like this get ignored when you do these 8-out-of-10-cats sort of data captures. Focus more on how you deal with stress rather than counting hours.
    In fact, if you act now, you can get my DVD set "Lawlzing Through Your Workday" for the low, low price of...

  20. Isn't this just stress?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Long work days?? Does time have that much to do with it. Or does the stress of being over worked causing the need for more hours contribute to more stress. My observation is that many companies place a extreme emphasis on constantly expanding, growing, making more profit. At some point you reach critical point at which it get's harder to expand. I was in transportation and the stress their has not been time per say but rather the move to better manage time to a mico managed level that it stresses out people who like office workers then have unreasonable deadlines to meet. More hours doesn't fix what is happening to workers. Its workers being ask to do more then they should because companies don't hire enough people.

  21. lifestyle? by ordirules · · Score: 1

    If you're going to discuss long working hours and heart problems, surely should the amount of exercise not also be considered? This is a big misleading. But I always appreciate the articles being shared on slashdot regardless :-)

  22. So how come... by guruevi · · Score: 1

    ... African American people have higher rates of heart disease <its-a-joke>

    But seriously since the study was European you would imagine heart disease would've taken a dip since lower hour work weeks are not just the norm but government enforced. Yet other studies show heart disease rising in European countries.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  23. Sitting is the new smoking by transporter_ii · · Score: 1

    [A] sedentary culture and studies show all that sitting is taking a major toll on employee health.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

    --
    Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
  24. It's not the hours by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's the ( lack of ) mileage.

    I would bet that for most people it's the sitting around literally all day without moving.

  25. Not long working days by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This doesn't seem to be about long working days at all. It's about working too many hours in a week. Yes, you need long days to do that, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's the long working days that's the cause. If I work three long days instead of five average ones, that's still under the 55 hours a week they talk about.

  26. No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No shit Sherlock.

    In other news water is wet and /. is infested with assholes.

  27. Re:I'm skeptical by butchersong · · Score: 1

    Also could be a relation to vitamin production. Living inside in a northern climate since the migration to cities in the twentieth century might not be ideal if you have enough melanin to protect you from strong rays. The likely have less vitamin d production and the mechanism for that has recently been linked to decreased heard disease.

  28. Most people don't get to do that by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    the vast majority of human beings work hard for nothing. That's not me grousing, it's just cold hard fact. If you're a factory worker in Indonesia you can work as hard as you want. It won't matter. Heck, there's people in India getting kidney failure because they won't take breaks while working the fields.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  29. Publication bias? by gdr · · Score: 1

    Did they only study AF or AF and 19 other health conditions?

  30. Re:I'm skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Except even black people who are rich celebrities still seem to show these same trends. A black celebrity dying in their 60s or 70s is far more common than a black celebrity dying in their 80s or 90s. Whites and Asians tend to make it to their 80s.

  31. Work for other reasons than get rich FOR YOURSELF. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Work for other reasons than get rich FOR YOURSELF.

  32. Re:I'm skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Citation? And how many black celebrities with a healthy lifestyle are there in the US anyway? If you eliminate musicians, your sample likely is too small.

  33. Supports other research: too sedentary is bad by DavidHumus · · Score: 1

    For instance, this "couch potato" article from 2008: https://www.newscientist.com/a... (may be paywalled).

    Some ideas what to do about it: https://www.newscientist.com/a... (may be paywalled).

    and this: https://www.newscientist.com/a... (OK - I keep giving NS articles because I subscribe and there's no paywall for me.)

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