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Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#11

Post by jbpnoy6fifty »

Definitely believable since sustained stress is highly related to sustained blood pressure issues. Sustained stress onto your heart damages your heart and other organs such as kidney and your liver. Ask any doctor who has even remote specialization or expertise with heart disease.

Stress is directly correlational to heart disease.

If you do experience palpitation or risk of high blood, I recommend you regularly check your blood pressure 3 times a day (morning, mid-afternoon, and evening)

Please note that I am not a doctor, but have been consulted by them after expressing concerns after prolonged periods of stress and lack of sleep due to overwork in both work and school/side-projects.

Note that your health and life is more important than work or that side project you are hustling on; and you should be able to ask for sick time off, if you need a health reset. I myself feared from taking time off because of fear of getting behind on projects; and it worsened my situation.

Be sure to work out regularly and maintain a relatively healthy life style.

Too much of anything is bad for you; work, success, and stress included.

If you are less than 30; which a lot of FAANG and startups prey on, then your tolerance to working long hours is pretty high.

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#12

Post by lnsru »

I would differentiate between “working” and “sitting in the office”. My grandfather was a passionate carpenter. His workweek was always at least 60 hours. Sourcing wood, visiting clients, organizing everything, etc. He was in good shape and died at 92 years age. Being forced to sit in the office 45 hours a week I don’t think that I reach age above 60 years. This sitting whole day in the noisy environment was destroying my health. Luckily pandemic came and I was able to work from home.

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#13

Post by fwsgonzo »

lnsru wrote: post #12

I would differentiate between “working” and “sitting in the office”. My grandfather was a passionate carpenter. His workweek was always at least 60 hours. Sourcing wood, visiting clients, organizing everything, etc. He was in good shape and died at 92 years age. Being forced to sit in the office 45 hours a week I don’t think that I reach age above 60 years. This sitting whole day in the noisy environment was destroyi…

A close person suffered a stroke before 60 because of just that. It's the fastest way to die: Work in an office your whole life. Of course, now he's depressed and feels like he lost out on life by working too much, which is true.

He started training really hard and got very fit. But the source of the depression will never go away.

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#14

Post by another-dave »

jbpnoy6fifty wrote: post #11

Definitely believable since sustained stress is highly related to sustained blood pressure issues. Sustained stress onto your heart damages your heart and other organs such as kidney and your liver. Ask any doctor who has even remote specialization or expertise with heart disease. Stress is directly correlational to heart disease. If you do experience palpitation or risk of high blood, I recommend you regularly check…

As well as stress of work itself, overworking makes you time poor, so you're less likely to eat healthily, get a full night's sleep regularly, exercise, get fresh air etc.

& then may be prone to letting off steam with unhealthy habits — e.g. rich meals / takeaways too often, too many beers after work.

Feels like the impacts really compound. I worked a high stress/hours job for awhile & really glad I could get out of it. Certainly wasn't worth the money/quality of life trade-off.

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#15

Post by sverhagen »

lnsru wrote: post #12

I would differentiate between “working” and “sitting in the office”. My grandfather was a passionate carpenter. His workweek was always at least 60 hours. Sourcing wood, visiting clients, organizing everything, etc. He was in good shape and died at 92 years age. Being forced to sit in the office 45 hours a week I don’t think that I reach age above 60 years. This sitting whole day in the noisy environment was destroyi…

> Being forced to sit in the office

I don't think it's the "sit[ting] in the office" part, rather it's the "being forced". If you love what you do, the mental strain of working long days is... at least different. You can still be physically destructive (skipping meals, skipping sleep). Unfortunately, many people do not love what they do, and I am so sorry for them.

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#17

Post by leipert »

The Japanese even have a word for it: Karoshi.

> which can be translated literally as "overwork death", […] The most common medical causes of karoshi deaths are heart attacks or strokes due to stress and a starvation diet.

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

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#18

Post by newsclues »

sverhagen wrote: post #15
lnsru wrote: post #12

I would differentiate between “working” and “sitting in the office”. My grandfather was a passionate carpenter. His workweek was always at least 60 hours. Sourcing wood, visiting clients, organizing everything, etc. He was in good shape and died at 92 years age. Being forced to sit in the office 45 hours a week I don’t think that I reach age above 60 years. This sitting whole day in the noisy environment was destroyi…

> Being forced to sit in the office I don't think it's the "sit[ting] in the office" part, rather it's the "being forced". If you love what you do, the mental strain of working long days is... at least different. You can still be physically destructive (skipping meals, skipping sleep). Unfortunately, many people do not love what they do, and I am so sorry for them.

Physiologically our bodies are not optimized to sit all day and stare at screens.

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#19

Post by meheleventyone »

lnsru wrote: post #12

I would differentiate between “working” and “sitting in the office”. My grandfather was a passionate carpenter. His workweek was always at least 60 hours. Sourcing wood, visiting clients, organizing everything, etc. He was in good shape and died at 92 years age. Being forced to sit in the office 45 hours a week I don’t think that I reach age above 60 years. This sitting whole day in the noisy environment was destroyi…

The study doesn’t FWIW.

Anecdotally I’m in my late-thirties, fit, don’t work crazy hours or live unhealthily and I had a heart attack a week ago today.

Being sedentary obviously doesn’t help matters and I’d suspect in terms of risk factors working long hours without moving much is worse than working long hours whilst active but we can’t defend that with anecdotes.

Re: Working over 55 hours a week associated with higher risk of stroke, heart attack

#20

Post by watwut »

lnsru wrote: post #12

I would differentiate between “working” and “sitting in the office”. My grandfather was a passionate carpenter. His workweek was always at least 60 hours. Sourcing wood, visiting clients, organizing everything, etc. He was in good shape and died at 92 years age. Being forced to sit in the office 45 hours a week I don’t think that I reach age above 60 years. This sitting whole day in the noisy environment was destroyi…

I dont think average stats really confirm that conclusion. People working in white collar professions have higher life expectancy then blue collar professions.
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