Your Job Can Kill You: Long Hours = Heart Attack

Longer hours could shorten your life -- and your income. You may think you'll earn more if you work 55+ hours per week, but it's likely you'll shorten your working life.

New research shows that if you keep that up and work 11 hours a day or more, you are 66 times more likely to have a heart attack or die of one.

The number of hours you work is such an important factor when it comes to heart problems that doctors are taking note. It used to be that when medical professionals assessed a patient's risk for heart disease, they would consider age, smoking status, family history and cholesterol levels. Now there's one more factor: The amount of hours you work.

This conclusion was reached over a 12-year study of more than 7,000 people. Only 10 percent of those studied worked more than 11 hours per day. But they had 67 percent of the heart attacks. A longer workday over a period of time was the only thing they had in common. However, those who worked 10 hours or less per day showed no significant increase in risk.

Mika Kivimaki, the University College London professor who conducted the research, told The New York Times that "the chronic experience of stress often associated with working long hours adversely affects metabolic processes." Some of these adverse effects include sleep disorders and depression.

You probably already suspected this, but here's the living (or dying) proof. If you have a demanding boss whose eyebrows rise if you arrive after 7:30 a.m. and leave before 7:30 p.m., you might want to forward a copy of this article to him or her.

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