Fibrillation from overtime

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Atrial fibrillation often goes unnoticed - but can be fatal. Those who work a lot are at a particularly high risk.

Overtime brings the heart out of sync: Those who work more than 55 hours a week are at a significantly higher risk of atrial fibrillation. This most common type of arrhythmia is risky: it can cause a stroke.

Researchers led by Mika Kivimaki from University College London have analyzed the data of more than 85,000 men and women from Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. At the start of the study, none of the participants had heart problems; over the next ten years, 1,061 of them developed atrial fibrillation.

A lot of work, high risk

The result was clear: Compared to employees with a normal weekly working time of 35 to 40 hours, the risk for high-volume workers who worked more than 55 hours per week increased by 40 percent.

The researchers also took into account other risk factors that may be associated with the higher workload, such as lack of exercise, older age, male gender, smoking, risky alcohol consumption or obesity. So the workload itself is apparently an independent risk factor for atrial fibrillation.

"A 40 percent higher risk is particularly a clear warning for people who already have an increased risk of stroke," says Kivimaki. For younger, healthy people, such a workload is rather insignificant when viewed over a ten-year perspective. However, people tended to maintain their hourly workload over the long term.

Risky flicker

With atrial fibrillation, electrical signals that control the heartbeat are disrupted. The auricles then fail to fill up completely with blood. Therefore, the amount of blood ejected from the heart is also reduced. Above all, builds up

The blood left behind in the atria and can form clots. If they loosen and travel with the bloodstream to the brain, they can cause a stroke.

Around 1.8 million people in Germany suffer from atrial fibrillation. Often, however, those affected do not even notice the arrhythmia. Others experience a "palpitations" or a racing heart.

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