Too many hours spent at the office can turn us into “alcoholics”, the more hours we work, the greater the need for alcohol can be. Study shows that working more than 48 hours a week can enhance our drinking habits.
Researchers chose 400,000 study subjects from more than 12 developed countries, covering all the corners of the world, such as Germany, Japan, Spain, New Zealand, United States, Sweden, France, Finland, Canada and Denmark.
The result determined that people surpassing 48 hour of work per week are on the edge of becoming alcoholics, unawarely. The calculations showed that for men, the red alert should start beaming when drinking over 21 drinks per week and when it comes to women at over 14 drinks.
Long working hours are exhausting the body and might lead to serious health issues, adding to that, high amounts of alcohol could cause a total disaster for the well being of the mind and body. Serious amounts of alcohol can also increase the risk of some types of cancer.
People working a weekly amount of 49 to 54 hours have a 13% higher risk of developing an “alcoholic habit” than the ones who are putting less work into it and stick to 35/40 working hours per week.
The reason people are drinking after long hard working hours, is because they find is as a therapy, a way to relief stress and forget about any sort of matters related to the work place, wrote in the study, assistant professor Cassandra Okechukwu of the Harvard School of Public Health.
Excessive amounts of hours spent at work have been related to heart diseases and depression, among other mental disorders. Study points out, that there was no difference between men and women or depending on the social economical status, location or age.
Europe has taken some legal safety measures to protect the health of the work force. The maximum amount of work time recommended by the European Union Working Time Directive for EU employees is of 48 hours per week, tops, which includes over time. The United States doesn’t have an established national recommendation for the maximum amount of hours that should be worked per week.
Researchers said that the “habit” of working excessive hours per week should be taken as a serious matter and not be taken for granted, because our own health is at stake.
Image Source: CBS News
