Can working long hours affect your heart? Here’s what doctors say

To understand the link between (work) stress and its direct impact on health, we reached out to doctors.

According to Dr Kumar Narayanan, consultant cardiac electrophysiologist at Medicover Hospitals Hyderabad, the link between mental stress and heart disease is well established. “Nowadays, not only are working hours excessively long, but stress at work has escalated exponentially. Work timings are also often unhealthy, extending into odd hours as people work across time zones in a globally-linked world. All this leads to harmful stress responses in the body, along with unhealthy diet, sedentariness, smoking and inadequate sleep.”

Weighing his thoughts on this, Dr P C Mondal, a senior consultant intervention cardiologist and HOD at Kolkata’s Apollo-Gleneagles Hospital said while patients with pre-existing cardiovascular diseases (especially heart failure) and those with coronary risk factors (diabetes, obesity) are at an increased risk of severe disease and mortality from Covid-19 (especially older patients), there may also be the development of new cardiovascular implications (including cardiomyopathy/myocarditis/Acute Coronary Syndromes) in patients without pre-existing cardiovascular diseases.

(Photo: Getty/Thinkstock)

To avoid the risk of stroke, heart conditions and diseases, doctors advise you to lead a more active lifestyle. Dr R K Jaswal, director and HOD, cardiology, at Fortis Hospital, Mohali said that this includes:

1. Avoiding a diet rich in fats, salt, low fiber, junk and fast foods.
2. Exercising more.
3. Lowering the consumption of tobacco, or completely stopping it.

“Psychosocial stress includes job-related stress due to long working hours, persistent stress, high work demands, and job insecurity,” he said, adding: “All these factors over a period of 25 years lead to the same level of risk of heart attacks as people who smoke and do not exercise.”

Summing it up, Dr Ulhas M Pandurangi, chief of division of cardiac electrophysiology and pacing at Arrhythmia-Heart Failure Academy, Chennai, noted: “Stress can tax the heart dearly. It is clear — working long hours is a major risk factor for heart-related ailments, almost equivalent to having diabetes and hypertension together.”

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