When work life spills over into our personal time, our entire cardiovascular system seems to suffer, according to a study.
- The imbalance between work and private life increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, responsible for nearly 18 million deaths each year.
- “Work spillover into family life significantly predicted two biomarkers: increased triglycerides, which could lead to hardening of the arteries, and reduced HDL, which could cause bad cholesterol levels to spike.”
- Similarly, there is “a correlation between the harmful effects of work on private life (stress, sleep degradation, headaches, etc.) and biomarkers of inflammation such as interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein.”
Longer working hours, an incentive to always be connected and available, blurred boundaries between work and “personal”: it is difficult today to find a healthy balance between professional and private life. It has been shown that by failing to reconcile the two, by letting work overflow into family, we end up weighing “risks to their mental health, relationships or even productivity.”
But according to a new study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Researchthis imbalance, and all the stress that results from it, also have physiological repercussions with more symptoms “silent” : in the long term, it would drastically increase the chances of developing cardiovascular diseases, responsible for nearly 18 million deaths each year.
Analysis of biomarkers of cardiovascular risk
To arrive at this conclusion, researchers from Singapore Management University in Singapore examined data from nearly 1,200 working adults with an average age of 52 and an average work week of 41 hours. Between 2004 and 2016, they assessed each person’s work-life balance using questionnaires, then took blood samples to analyze the five biomarkers of cardiovascular risk (high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, triglyceride, interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein).
Work-life imbalance linked to cardiovascular disease
Result, “The harmful spillover of work into family life significantly predicted two biomarkers: an increase in triglycerides, which could lead to hardening of the arteries, and a reduction in HDL, which could cause cholesterol levels to spike,” can we read in a communicated. Similarly, there is “a correlation” between the negative impact of work on private life (stress, deterioration of relationships, lack of sleep, etc.) and biomarkers of inflammation such as interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein.
In short, the imbalance between “professional” and “personal” life can lead to certain physiological changes, particularly in the cardiovascular system, which contribute to cardiovascular diseases. This study is, according to the researchers, a “alarm signal” so that companies and governments pay more attention to ensuring that workers find a good compromise between the two.
