Working Hard Could be Hard on Your Heart

Putting in long hours? That could lead to heart problems, a new study suggests.

A long-term study of 11,000 British civil servants found a link between high job strain and coronary heart disease. While it doesn’t necessarily show a cause and effect between working long hours and getting heart disease, the study found that symptoms of heart disease were higher in those working long hours, Reuters reported.

An extra one or two hours of work beyond a seven-hour work day didn’t seem to increase risk of heart disease—but the risk was 60% higher for those who worked three to four hours overtime, according to the news report.

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The study adjusted for other risk factors, such as smoking, being overweight, or having high cholesterol. However, the lifestyle of people working long hours could deteriorate over time, noted researcher Dr. Marianna Virtanen, an epidemiologist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational health and University College London, according to Reuters. For instance, working long hours could lead you to drink more or have a poor diet.

Furthermore, long hours might be associated with work-related stress or working while you are sick. “Overtime-induced work stress might contribute to a substantial proportion of cardiovascular disease,” Gordon McInnes, professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Glasgow’s Western Infirmary, told Reuters.

The study findings are published in the European Heart Journal.

linkedFA Teams Up with NASDAQ to Add Adviser Resources

linkedFA, a social networking site for financial professionals, has partnered with NASDAQ.com to offer resources on its site.

linkedFA said the partnership gives linkedFA members direct access to NASDAQ’s Financial Advisor Center (www.nasdaq.com/advisor), which offers resources tailored to the professional interests of financial planners. The resources include news, commentary, educational tools, job listings, adviser calculators, and more.  Conversely, users of the NASDAQ Advisor Center can directly access linkedFA to use social media.

linkedFA, which launched earlier this year, said it is the first social networking site compliant with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) (see “Social Networking Site for Advisers Says It’s FINRA-Compliant” and “Advisers Meet Compliance’s Hurdles to Using Social Media”).

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