Long Working Hours Might Lead to Irregular Rapid Heartbeat

Admit it – some of you are in this situation. You always stay back at work coz you’ve go SO MANY THINGS to do, and even resort to ordering McDelivery just so that you can get your fix without leaving the office.

You leave your office around 9-10 p.m., and the next day, you wake up and reach your office by 8.00 a.m.

Your boss passes you another pile of work to finish, and then the emails start overflowing like a volcanic eruption.

Die la like this.

Image: medicinenet.com

But seriously, you’re actually exposing yourself to some huge health risks. And it’s not just from all the binge eating you’re doing while you’re stressed up at your desk.

A study that was recently conducted found that people who spent way more than 35-40 hours a week working were at a much bigger chance of having atrial fibrillation.

What is that ah?

Well, it’s an irregular heartbeat that’s also fast. You could be living a working lifestyle that’s bringing you closer to heart failure, chronic fatigue and even strokes!

The research took a huge number of men and ladies – more than 85k for the study. These people started off without any symptoms of atrial defibrillation and were around the age of 43.

While the study was conducted, the people who worked for a minimum of 55 hours weekly had 40% more chances of getting atrial defibrillation compared to the other participants which worked for 35-40 hours.

Image: dominioninternalmedicine.com

The data research was done using workers from Finland, Denmark, Sweden and the UK.

Oh and before we forget ah, long working hours can possibly make you fat too.

In fact, working for an extended number of hours has been associated with slightly elevated rates for smoking, inactivity, alcoholism and obesity.

What Happens During Atrial Defibrillation

There are electrical impulses that take place in the upper chambers of your heart. When an atrial defibrillation occurs, these impulses are in chaos. This in turn disturbs the function of your heart’s contraction, and makes it quiver instead.

The damage? Blood doesn’t flow as usual to your heart’s lower chambers, which can even cause blood clots. If these bad fellas travel up to your brain, you might get a stroke.

If you worked a standard work week, the chances of you getting atrial fibrillation is 12.4 out of a 1000 people.

Incline your working hours by the least of 55 hours, and you’re looking at a chance of being diagnosed for it by 17.6 out of a 1000 individuals.

Image: webmedicine.com

The type of work you do is equally important. There’s factors like physical labour, ever-changing shifts, working across different time zone on a continuous level and of course, the stress levels that come with the job.

All these factors can also demand way more than what your personal capacity is able to take, and contribute towards an irregular heart rhythm in the long run.

Damn. Gotta take care of the heart man. Cannot afford to die this early while your boss collect pay cheques month after month.

Featured Image: Creativa Images / Shutterstock.com