Health & Medicine
Night Shift Works Against Heart, Ups Risks of Attacks and Strokes
Brooke Miller
First Posted: Jul 27, 2012 07:05 AM EDT
A new Canadian study claims that "shift work especially night shift intensifies the occurrence of attacks and stroke than the day workers." This study is being billed as the largest of its kind.
In order to conduct the study, the international research team from Norway and Canada collected the data from previous 34 studies that involved more than two million people. They also considered the socio-economic status of the workers, their diet and general health. The data showed the researchers that shift work was associated with nearly 23 percent increase in heart attack risks and a five percent risk of stroke and a 24 percent increase in the risk of coronary artery disease and other coronary problems.
They reported a total of 17,359 coronary events of some kind, including cardiac arrests, 6,598 heart attacks and 1,854 strokes caused by lack of blood to the brain, symptoms that were easily noticeable in shift workers than in other people.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the year 2011, nearly 15 million Americans work a permanent night shift or regularly rotate in and out of night shifts, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means a significant sector of the nation's work force is exposed to the hazards of working nights, which include restlessness, sleepiness on the job, fatigue, decreased attention and disruption of the body's metabolic process.
The study that was published in the British Medical Journal was led by Dr Daniel Hackam, from Western University in Canada. "Shift work is associated with vascular events, which may have implications for public policy and occupational medicine," he said.
According to the researchers, the shift work was not linked to increased mortality rates from heart problems and that the relative risks associated with heart problems were modest.
"Shift workers were more prone to sleeping and eating badly. Night shift workers are up all the time and they don't have a defined rest period. They are in a state of perpetual nervous system activation which is bad for things like obesity and cholesterol. Another factor may be exposure to electric light at night," Dr Hackam explained.
"Lab experiments have shown that within seconds of exposure to bright light at night, melatonin a hormone that lowers blood pressure drops dramatically, essentially to undetectable levels," he said.
The investigators called for more research to try to determine which shift workers are most vulnerable and to look at how changing shifts might help heart health.
Prior to this, there was a study done in which showed how women who rate their jobs as highly demanding and stressful were at an increased risk of becoming victims of heart attacks, stroke or other heart related diseases.
Dr. Carl Lavie, a cardiologist at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans concluded saying, "My advice would be to exercise and make sure their fitness is at a high level, and then I'd treat their risk factors vigorously. If you are a shift worker it is important to recognize that treatments you might be getting for blood pressure control, weight control and cholesterol may be more important for you than someone at a lower risk."
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First Posted: Jul 27, 2012 07:05 AM EDT
A new Canadian study claims that "shift work especially night shift intensifies the occurrence of attacks and stroke than the day workers." This study is being billed as the largest of its kind.
In order to conduct the study, the international research team from Norway and Canada collected the data from previous 34 studies that involved more than two million people. They also considered the socio-economic status of the workers, their diet and general health. The data showed the researchers that shift work was associated with nearly 23 percent increase in heart attack risks and a five percent risk of stroke and a 24 percent increase in the risk of coronary artery disease and other coronary problems.
They reported a total of 17,359 coronary events of some kind, including cardiac arrests, 6,598 heart attacks and 1,854 strokes caused by lack of blood to the brain, symptoms that were easily noticeable in shift workers than in other people.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the year 2011, nearly 15 million Americans work a permanent night shift or regularly rotate in and out of night shifts, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means a significant sector of the nation's work force is exposed to the hazards of working nights, which include restlessness, sleepiness on the job, fatigue, decreased attention and disruption of the body's metabolic process.
The study that was published in the British Medical Journal was led by Dr Daniel Hackam, from Western University in Canada. "Shift work is associated with vascular events, which may have implications for public policy and occupational medicine," he said.
According to the researchers, the shift work was not linked to increased mortality rates from heart problems and that the relative risks associated with heart problems were modest.
"Shift workers were more prone to sleeping and eating badly. Night shift workers are up all the time and they don't have a defined rest period. They are in a state of perpetual nervous system activation which is bad for things like obesity and cholesterol. Another factor may be exposure to electric light at night," Dr Hackam explained.
"Lab experiments have shown that within seconds of exposure to bright light at night, melatonin a hormone that lowers blood pressure drops dramatically, essentially to undetectable levels," he said.
The investigators called for more research to try to determine which shift workers are most vulnerable and to look at how changing shifts might help heart health.
Prior to this, there was a study done in which showed how women who rate their jobs as highly demanding and stressful were at an increased risk of becoming victims of heart attacks, stroke or other heart related diseases.
Dr. Carl Lavie, a cardiologist at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans concluded saying, "My advice would be to exercise and make sure their fitness is at a high level, and then I'd treat their risk factors vigorously. If you are a shift worker it is important to recognize that treatments you might be getting for blood pressure control, weight control and cholesterol may be more important for you than someone at a lower risk."
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone