According to an article in Journal Heart, Out-of Shape men who work long hours more than double their risk of dying from heart disease compared to non-fit men working fewer hours. On the other hand, men who are fit who work long hours are not affected by heart risks.
Journal Heart backs their findings by citing a study conducted on 5,000 men, between the ages of 40 and 59, who worked for various companies. Their fitness levels were assessed at the start of the study and they were followed-up for more than 30 years. During that time, about 12 percent of the participants died as a result of narrowed and hardened arteries known as ischemic heart disease.
Out-of-shape men who worked 41 to 45 hours per week were 59 percent more likely to die of heart disease compared with men who worked less than 40 hours per week, although they were not more likely to die of other causes. Men who were physically fit and worked longer hours were less likely to die of heart disease and also less likely to die of other causes.
Those participants who were both unfit and working more than 45 hours per week more than doubled their risk of dying of heart disease compared to those who worked less than 40 hours per week.
In a news release from the journal's publisher, Andreas Holtermann, of the National Research Center for the Working Environment in Copenhagen along with colleagues state that, "The finding that working more than 45 hours a week is associated with more than a doubled risk of death from heart disease among men with low physical fitness, and not among men with moderate or high physical fitness, is a new observation." "If the relationship is causal, it obviously has major implications for the prevention of heart disease."
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