Long Workdays May Be Bad for Your Heart

Jul 20, 2017 · 14 comments
Chef-Doctor Jemichel (California)
One factor apparently missing in this presentation: emotional impact of personal shock-conflicts. We now know of the mind-body connection yet this unity has generally yet to be included in these kinds of studies because "mind-body" is not generally accepted in allopathic medicine. The significance of these findings could be much greater were significant emotional impacts included.
Aungzaw (Yangon)
Yes ,I agree that long day work can cause helath problem. People will get stress from their works. Stress can cause many diseases. Especially for older people because the blood will be increased when they work for a long time. Lack of sleep can be also cause by the stresss. As u don't have enough sleep you can get the headache and organism problems. People should takes rest when we need. Don't work hard if u can't because you don't know what is coming next.
William (Vietnam)
I'm in Vietnam, i've been working 48 hours per week as an office staff. It's a sedentary job most of the time. There will be no illness if you can adjust your diet to be healthier and take up some exercises like cycling, running or lifting weight at least 1 hour a day after or before work time.
The study made in Britain, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. I have no idea about working culture in these countries. Perhaps the researchers forgot to put working condition or climate elements into the convey. It would make me more connective to this post's opinion.
By the way, this knowledge is truly helpful for those who are workaholics to stand back and think about its impacts to their life
OSS Architect (Palo Alto,, CA)
I see a clear dose-response effect in blood pressure with increased hours at work for older people. By the end of a 12-18 hour day or days; which is common in Silicon Valley when you are trying to hit a release date for new software, an older engineer (55-60) might see 180+ systolic BP.

The classic "dropped dead at 55" seems to occur the day after a long stint at work. An engineer goes home at 3 AM, comes back at 10 AM and has a cardiac event by noon.
NIck (Amsterdam)
Or, it could be as simple as dirt. These workaholics simply don't take time for exercise, and it is the lack of exercise, not the work itself that leads to heart problems.

I am a 66 year old workaholic, and I still work over 55 hours week, and am in very good health. Why? Because I faithfully take an hour a day to work out - running, biking, swimming, or weight lifting.

This study appears to work very hard at ignoring the obvious.
Bob Merberg (Rochester, NY)
The study did not work hard at ignoring what some may consider obvious. In fact, the researchers adjusted for the potential influence of physical activity level, as well as age, sex, socioeconomic status, BMI, tobacco use, and alcohol consumption. When the data was available, the study also adjusted for clinical factors like hypertension, cholesterol disorders, depression, infection, and respiratory disease.

With it's cohort of more than 85,000 workers, this study -- which has been producing important findings on the relationship between job conditions and health for several years -- was rigorous. The researchers don't purport to infer cause-and-effect, so in that regard especially, readers certainly can draw their own conclusions.
Rosalie Lieberman (Chicago, IL)
You overlook stress. Some people aren't stressed by intense work or long hours. But most are. Lack of sleep worsens stress, and try sleeping at 3 AM when you know you have to be up by 7 or 8 the latest. Exercise definitely reduces stress, but it can't eradicate the chronic tension associated with those jobs.
Abby (East Bay)
Very interesting. My father was a workaholic. He first went into atrial fibrillation at age 46. Despite having world class healthcare at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, he went into atrial fib periodically and had to be cardioverted. He retired at age 50. By 60 he had developed Type II diabetes and had bouts of congestive heart failure when he was in atrial fibrillation. He died at 71. I've made a promise to myself to work to live, not live to work.
edna (san francisco)
Too busy working long hours to check the full article in the EHJ, but I do wonder if the data was skewed in anyway by country. Seems to me that Britain has a very different work and life culture from those in Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Would also love to see this study done in the US!
GuiG (New Orleans. LA)
The study's limitation of sampling intervals does beg questions, such as whether the causality of the cited heart risk lies more significantly with other factors than the length of workdays. Among these comments, one reader already asked whether sedentary work may contribute more to the risk than the length of the work day: good question.

Another consideration--irrespective of whether the work is sedentary--may be the recovery cycle, if any, between long workday bouts. In an article in January 2001 Harvard Business Review, "The Making of the Corporate Athlete," a compelling argument is made that those who prefer to see their bodies taxed more than their dividends would be much better off including REGULAR recovery periods between intervals of intense work durations, whatever the nature of that work may be.

The research exposed in the European Heart Journal may certainly be onto something. However, it might further its instructive value by exploring complementary behavior that may mitigate the adverse impact of long workdays, which most likely will continue as an inevitable mainstay in many of our lives.
rupert (alabama)
Did they control for how much caffeine was consumed by people working longer or odd hours?
Ed (Old Field, NY)
So you really can be allergic to work?
H (Chicago)
Could this be because our jobs are sedentary?
Bob Merberg (Rochester, NY)
The study adjusted for activity/inactivity levels.