Stroke: That's how dangerous overtime is
All content is checked by medical journalists.Working overtime has long been a routine for many employees. But it can make you sick: if you accumulate too many of them, you risk a stroke.
Up to 40 hours a week are normal working hours for full-time employees. But that is becoming increasingly rare: workers in this country worked almost two billion hours of overtime last year, reports the German Federation of Trade Unions.
A third more strokes
That can take revenge. Because the more overtime someone accumulates, the greater their risk of a cerebral infarction. For people who work 41 to 48 hours, it rises by ten percent, those who work 49 to 54 hours a week have a 27 percent higher risk, and from 55 hours a week it climbs further to 33 percent - that's a third.
Stress and unhealthy lifestyle
There are many reasons for this: the more time the work eats up, the less there is for physical activity and relaxing leisure activities. At the same time, the stress load increases - those who have to work a lot are often under great pressure. And stress, we know, is a critical risk factor for a stroke. Among other things, stress promotes high blood pressure and inflammatory reactions, which in the long term damage the blood vessels and promote a stroke. In addition, there are unhealthy, stress-related behaviors such as poor diet, smoking or excessive alcohol consumption.
The risk figures are based on an evaluation of 17 studies with around 530,000 participants, which was carried out on behalf of the European Union. "The large pool of studies on this topic allows us to determine the relationship between working hours and cardiovascular risk more precisely than before," says Mika Kivimäku from University College London, who was involved in the study. This study even included data from around 600,000 participants from 25 studies.
Diseased vessels
Not surprisingly, in addition to the risk of stroke, the risk of arteriosclerosis also increases - the main cause of blood clots in the brain and heart attacks. However, the connection is less clear here: Those who worked more than 55 hours a week were 13 percent more likely to have constricted blood vessels.
In Germany, more than 150,000 people suffer a stroke every year, and around 63,000 die as a result. This makes the stroke the third leading cause of death in Germany. The survivors often have to struggle with numerous symptoms of neurological deficiency, ranging from paralysis to speech and speech disorders and impaired vision. (cf)
Source: Mika Kivimäki et al .: Long working hours and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis of published and unpublished data for 603? 838 individuals,
The Lancet, 08/20/2015; doi 10.1016 / S0140-673660295-1
