[Eauz]

CTV News

If you've been looking for a way to say "no" to overtime, you can now cite a new study that suggests a link between long hours and an increased risk of high blood pressure.

Increased risk of hypertension joins a growing list of health risks associated with overwork, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

A survey of more than 24,000 California workers aged 18 to 64 found that the more hours people worked, the more likely they were to report that they had high blood pressure.

Results from the survey, which appeared in the medical journal Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association, support data found by studies in Japan. Japanese researchers became interested in links between work hours and health effects following an increase in cases of "Karoshi," or "sudden death from overwork."

...

In addition, the differences reported were not large.

According to the survey, people working 40 hours a week reported a 14 per cent higher incidence of high blood pressure than those working 11 to 19 hours a week. Those working 41 to 50 hours had a 17 per cent higher risk, however, and people working more than 51 hours a week had a 29-per-cent increased risk.

If the study is correct, it may mean that working more than 50 hours a week may be as much a threat to your blood pressure as smoking or being overweight.

"If you are stressed, get your doctor to check your blood pressure," Tobe urged. "It's so preventable -- it's so treatable -- that it's very important for people to know if they have it because we can bring it back down to normal."

Increases in blood pressure can be managed through medication, if a doctor thinks it is warranted. But people can also make important lifestyle changes.

I agree with the first part of the bold text. Blood pressure can be prevented and is treatable, however, the way they go about treating the issue is wrong. In relation to medication, you're only covering up, or providing a scape-goat for the real reason, that being the environment (Capitalist system) we are placed in. There definetly needs to be more research, and also a serious look at the amount of hours people should be working in a day. People should not be destroying their own labour power, just to benefit the shareholders and company owners.

[Mikolaj]

What happens, as 12 hour workdays again become the norm, when we can't say "no" to our boss's mandatory overtime for fear of firing?

Capitalism: it makes your blood pressure go up.

[Russkie]

Capitalism: it makes your blood pressure go up.

That's their problem. In Japan, it's pretty normal and expected for workers to work overtime for several hours more.

People are stupid, they want the other person happy, they neevr think about themselve. There's nothing wrong with being selfish and self-centered.

[Mikolaj]

That's their problem. In Japan, it's pretty normal and expected for workers to work overtime for several hours more.

In Japan they also have rooms businessmen rent out where they destroy everything in them to let out the stress from work. It shouldn't have to come to that in the first place.

There's nothing wrong with being selfish and self-centered.

...unless such selfishness is at the expense of others-such as making people work long hours just so you can pocket more money.

If our economic system serves the interests of a few at the expense of the many, it's time to look for a new system.

[Russkie]

In Japan they also have rooms businessmen rent out where they destroy everything in them to let out the stress from work. It shouldn't have to come to that in the first place.

I though they just go to a lavish whore house or gentlemen's club to releave stress, that's what I saw in documentaries. Japanese prostitutes are really hot, and they enjoy their work compared to their western counterpart.

[Mikolaj]

Japanese 'enjoying" sex? I think they would rather have teeth pulled without novocaine

Well, the women anyway.

The men are freaks.

[Eauz]

In Japan, it's pretty normal and expected for workers to work overtime for several hours more.

I'll assume that it is also normal that people come home from work, and say they no longer desire to live. I was riding the train to work with her a few days ago, and she tells me that she no longer wants to live. I am serious, ever since my fiancee too up this job, they've been piling on the overtime work, only 1 hour break at 12:00pm, and she ends up working from 8:30am - 8:00pm (then takes an hour and half train home). It is unfortunatly an expected thing in Japanese society, that the younger or new people end up being faithful to the company, but when you end up working 11 - 12 hours per day, the company needs to realise that people aren't just machines, that they also need time for themselves at the end of the day to recharge and relax. Its unfortunate that it has come to this. This is the norm in Japanese society, that people work these long shifts, and unless you pick up on a McD's job, you're pretty much stuck with these long hour jobs.

[Foxwood]

Hey we live longer we can at least accept to have high blood pressure