If you are a workaholic who spends your whole day working, you might want to reconsider practicing that as a French study found that people who work an average of one 10-hour day a week see their risk of suffering a stroke rise by a third compared with someone who does not regularly work long hours.
According to Independent, in the study published in the journal Stroke, researchers looked at the impact of working cultures on cardiovascular health and found that people who said they worked 10 hours or more for at least 50 days a year were around 29 percent more likely to have a stroke.
This is probably one of the reasons the French employees have ‘right to disconnect’ where companies are obliged not to pressure employees to respond to emails or other issues outside of work.
The UK workers put in an average of 42 hours a week as compared to France, Italy, and Belgium which are only around 39 hours a week, and 37 hours in Denmark.
From lifestyle surveys and interviews with 143,592 participants aged 18 to 69 who have been followed up at regular intervals since 2012, this situation could be even more concerning for Britons as they have the longest working hours of any EU nation.
Those who worked long hours chronically over a period of 10 years or more were also even more at risk with a 45 percent higher chance of having a stroke.
Besides that, the study also found that additional stroke risk was unexpectedly most pronounced in younger workers under the age of 50.
“As a clinician, I will advise my patients to work more efficiently and plan to follow my own advice,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Alexis Descatha of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research.
It’s important to plan your work efficiently to reduce the risk of having a serious health issue in the future.
