Cardiovascular Disease
There are many studies that support the findings that as a shift worker, you are at a greater risk for developing and dying from cardiovascular disease, than a person that works a regular day shift.
Some statistics:
When seventeen studies, all dealing with shift work and cardiovascular disease risk, were compared, on balance shift workers were found to have a 40% increase in risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
After working shifts for five years or more, both men and women have a 30 percent higher risk of having a heart attack than comparable groups of day workers.
Compared with day workers, rotating shift workers have a significantly higher risk of death due to heart disease.
Metabolic syndrome, linked to cardiovasular disease, is a cluster of symptoms: abdominal obesity, high blood triglycerides, blood cholesterol abnormalities, high blood pressure and insulin resistance. It is more often seen in shift workers than in day workers.
The reasons for the association between cardiovascular disease and shift work are not completely clear. Researchers believe that the combination of circadian disruption, stress and lifestyle choices all play a role.
Circadian Disruption
The development of Metabolic Syndrome is in part related to your body's poor response to meals consumed during the night time, when it is ill equipped for digestion. Your circadian clock is telling your body that you should be sleeping not eating! Shift workers generally have higher blood levels of insulin, glucose and triglycerides following a meal eaten at night than they would if they ate the same meal during the day shift. High blood levels of insulin, glucose and triglycerides over an extended period of time can contribute to the development of metabolic syndrome and thus, cardiovascular disease.
Eating at night causes a specific type of fat called triacylglycerol to rise significantly in the blood stream and it generally takes 2 days on the night schedule for the level to fall back to normal. High levels of triacylglycerol are a known risk factor in the development cardiovascular disease.
Shift workers are less likely to experience the natural drop in blood pressure that should occur while you are sleeping. This adds further stress to blood vessels and is linked to heart damage.
Stress
Shift work is in itself a chronic source of stress, as the body must try to adapt to working at different times and to working during the night when the body is physiologically prepared to sleep. Frequently changing sleep and awake periods places stress on the body's nervous system. Sleep debt which is common among shift workers also adds to stress. Chronic stress is related to elevated cortisol levels. Long term exposure to high levels of cortisol in genetically susceptible people, can increase your odds for developing abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, abnormal cholesterol and triglyceride blood levels – all risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Lifestyle Choices
Although studies show that there is a clear relationship between shift work and cardiovasular disease, shift work also seems to magnify the negative effects of other lifestyle related risk factors. So not only are you at more of a risk of having a heart attack because of your shift work, your shift work also makes you more likely to have poor lifestyle habits. To make matters even worse, your bad habits are more likely to kill you than another person with the same bad habits, who works only during the day. Shift workers as a group smoke more than day workers. Smoking doubles the risk of heart disease. Night workers tend to snack more on unhealthy foods such as candy bars, potato chips, fried foods and pizza. Shift workers also drink more caffeinated and alcoholic beverages than people who work only in the daytime.
As a shiftworker, this information may be shocking and disheartening. What you do need to know is that there is hope. This issue is being taken very seriously by experts in the fields of Nutritional Science, Occupational Health, Cardiovascular Medicine and Chronobiology. Stand Six Inc. will continue to provide up to date information and preventative solutions through the Shift Solution. Click on the link Help For Your Heart for the latest breakthroughs.