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Who’s Really At Risk For Poor Heart Health Due To Work Burnout?

This article is more than 4 years old.

If you need another reason to use up your vacation days, a study from the University of Southern California may have it. In research released last week, scientists found that individuals who experience “work burnout” are at greater risk of experiencing irregular heartbeats. While work may be inevitable for most, luckily this finding doesn’t include most of us. 

In a study released on Monday in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, researchers sought to find out the link between anger, exhaustion, antidepressant use, and poor social ties, with the incident of atrial fibrillation in adults. 

Results were based on the health outcomes of 11,445 individuals who were all atrial fibrillation free at the beginning of the study and were followed for an average of 23.4 years. In this time, there were 2,220 incidents of atrial fibrillation. After adjustments were made for factors such as age and race, results showed that individuals who regularly suffered from significant stress and exhaustion, as measured by their answers on a questionnaire, were 20 percent more likely to develop atrial fibrillation over the course of the follow-up, compared to their less stressed-out counterparts. 

Don’t fret too much, the study was mostly focused on vital exhaustion, which is a combination of fatigue, irritability, and demoralization. This is far more than the average sleepless night or stressful deadline. 

“It’s very important for the readers to understand that when we say ‘exhaustion’ (and what we actually studied in this paper) we are not referring to the exhaustion one might feel if they could not sleep the night before or if they had a particularly grueling day at work,” explained Dr.Parveen Garg, lead study author to Forbes. “ The exhaustion we are referring to is more chronic and a result of stress that may be unrelenting or unchecked.”

In addition, while those with vital exhaustion are less likely to suffer from guilt and low-self esteem, suggesting that depression does not play a role in this poor heart health.

The overall results of the research suggest that higher levels of exhaustion may lead to an increased risk of atrial fibrillation. According to Garg, these results need to be further reviewed before they can be translated into something clinically meaningful for physicians or their patients. In the meantime though, there are ways to prevent the stress of work or life from having too much of a toll on your tinker. 

“Some simple steps one can take to manage exhaustion include exercise, eating a healthy diet, practicing good sleep hygiene to ensure adequate sleep, and practicing stress reduction strategies that include talking about the stress in your life with someone you trust or even a professional, spending more time outside, yoga or meditation,” suggested Garg.