Working long hours may alter brain structure, research suggests
Experts found that being 'overworked' may affect those parts of the brain related to problem-solving and memory, while also potentially affecting mental health.
The findings, published in the journal Occupational And Environmental Medicine, looked at the impact of overwork on specific brain regions in health workers who regularly clocked up a 52-hour week or more.
Researchers drew on data from a long-term study looking at worker health and used MRI scans to examine brain structure.
Some 110 workers were included in the final analysis, most of whom where clinicians.
Of these, 32 worked excessive weekly hours, while 78 worked standard hours.
Those putting in long working hours every week were significantly younger, had spent less time in work and were more highly educated than those clocking up standard hours.
The researchers, including from Yonsei University in South Korea, said: 'Overworked individuals exhibited significant changes in brain regions associated with executive function and emotional regulation.'
Analysis showed a 19% increase in left caudal middle frontal gyrus volume in the overworked group compared with the non-overworked group.
This part of the brain has a major role in various cognitive functions, particularly in the frontal lobe.
It is involved in attention, working memory, and language-related processing.
Other areas involved in attention, planning and decision-making were also changed according to the scans, plus regions involved in emotional processing, self-awareness and understanding social context.
The team concluded: 'This study provides preliminary evidence that overwork is associated with structural brain changes, particularly in regions linked to cognition and emotion.
'These findings provide novel neurobiological evidence linking prolonged working hours to structural brain changes, emphasising the need for further research to understand the long-term cognitive and emotional implications of overwork.
'The results underscore the importance of addressing overwork as an occupational health concern and highlight the need for workplace policies that mitigate excessive working hours.'
Ruth Wilkinson, head of policy and public affairs at the charity the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, said: 'Global analysis from the World Health Organisation and International Labour Organisation has found that working long hours is on the increase and is responsible for about one-third of the total estimated work-related burden of disease.
'We believe urgent action is needed to tackle an epidemic of long working hours.
'A long hours culture can be experienced in what we've identified as the 'small print' of working life today.
'This captures those hidden or unspoken expectations placed on top of workers' contracts.
'It includes always having to be available/on duty in this digital age, stripped of the right to disconnect from work outside of normal working hours….
'Our YouGov survey, last year, showed that nearly a quarter of UK workers regularly work more than the legal maximum people should work in the UK (48 hours a week), while 44% said working more than your contracted hours is part of the culture in their organisation. More than half said they regularly check work emails and messages outside of working hours.
'We want to see employers strip away the 'small print', identify and tackle psycho-social risks as part of risk assessment processes and become more transparent in how they treat their workers.'
Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Man dies after weight-training chain around neck pulls him into MRI machine
A man who wore a large weight-training chain around his neck and approached his wife while a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine scanned her knee at a clinic in New York died after the device forcefully pulled him, according to police and media reports. Keith McAllister, 61, was killed at the Nassau Open MRI clinic in Westbury, Long Island, after he accompanied his wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, there on 16 July. Adrienne told the local outlet News 12 Long Island that an MRI machine there was scanning her knee when she called out to her husband, 'Keith, come help me up' from the table. The technician operating the machine – which looks like a long, narrow tube with openings on each end – then allowed Keith to walk in while he wore a nearly 20lb (9kg) metal chain that he used for weight training. Police in Nassau county, New York, said Keith was then sucked into the device by its potent magnetic force. He endured 'a medical episode' at that point which left him in critical condition at a hospital, and he was pronounced dead a day later, police said. Adrienne told News 12 that her late husband had suffered several heart attacks after the incident with the MRI machine and before his death. She recalled, through tears, 'seeing the machine snatch him and pull him into the machine'. She said she implored for the clinic to call for emergency help and, referring to the machine, to 'turn this damn thing off!' But eventually Keith 'went limp in my arms', Adrienne recounted. 'This is still pulsating in my brain.' A GoFundMe campaign since launched to support Adrienne purported that Keith 'was attached to the machine for almost an hour before they could release the chain from the machine'. Adrienne told News 12 that she and her husband had previously been to Nassau Open MRI, and he had worn his weight-training chain there before. 'This was not the first time that guy [had] seen that chain,' Adrienne said to the station. 'They had a conversation about it before.' A person who picked up a phone call to Nassau Open MRI on Monday said the facility had no comment. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates MRI safety and warns that scans with the technology can create a 'strong, static magnetic field' that poses physical hazards. The agency says that 'careful screening of people and objects entering the MRI environment is critical to ensure nothing enters the magnet area that may become a projectile' and dangerous to anyone nearby. The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, meanwhile, cautions that MRI machines exerts 'very powerful forces on objects of iron, some steels and other magnetizable objects' and have the strength 'to fling a wheelchair across the room'. McAllister was not the first person killed by an MRI machine in New York. In 2001, Michael Colombini, 6, died when an oxygen tank flew into an MRI chamber that he was in, having been pulled in by the machine at a medical center in Westchester county.
The Independent
9 hours ago
- The Independent
Woman having MRI scan describes horrifying moment her husband was killed when the machine pulled him in
The family of a man who was fatally sucked into an MRI machine while his wife was receiving treatment has described how the tragic incident unfolded. Adrienne Jones-McAllister was undergoing a routine knee scan when she asked a technician at Nassau Open MRI in Westbury, Long Island, to fetch her husband from the waiting area. Keith McAllister, 61, entered the examination room to help his wife get back to her feet near the end of the scan. But instead, the machine's strong magnetic pull dragged McAllister's 20-pound weight-training chain in. Jones-McAllister said that she and a technician tried to pry McAllister away from the machine while she pleaded for someone to turn it off. 'I was saying 'turn off the machine, call 911, do something, turn this damn thing off!' Jones-McAllister told News 12 Long Island. 'He waved goodbye to me and his whole body went limp.' Jones-McAllister said that her husband died the day after the incident last Wednesday after suffering from a series of heart attacks, with the Nassau County Police Department earlier reporting that the man experienced a 'medical episode.' 'I haven't been able to sleep, I'm barely eating. I just can't believe...,' she said. 'I'm just trying to wrap my head around the whole thing.' McAllister's stepdaughter Samantha Bodden has set up a GoFundMe campaign page to help the family cover funeral costs. In the description of the fundraiser, which had raised more than $3,300 by Monday morning, Bodden said her mother and the technician 'tried for several minutes to release him' before calling the authorities. McAllister was attached to the machine for almost an hour before they could release the chain from the machine, she added. Bodden insisted that, despite some reports, her stepfather was allowed to be in the room. 'Was it a freak accident - yes. However him being in that room wasn't unauthorized,' she said in a Facebook post a day after McAllister's death. MRI machines are designed to find ailments in the body using powerful magnets. The magnetic field of an MRI scanner extends beyond the machine and exerts powerful forces on iron, some steels, and other magnetizable objects. It is even strong enough to fling a wheelchair across the room, according to the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. In a post on Saturday, Bodden attempted to clear up why the hospital didn't 'just shut the machine off.' 'A MRI machine is a magnet. An extremely powerful magnet,' she began. 'Even after the machine is cut off for emergencies the magnet still holds a great force of power.' 'So yes, it was strong enough to suck him in which it did and left him that way for a very very long time. He definitely didn't deserve to go out like that [so much f***ing hate].'
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- The Guardian
Man dies after weight-training chain around neck pulls him into MRI machine
A man who wore a large weight-training chain around his neck and approached his wife while a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine scanned her knee at a clinic in New York died after the device forcefully pulled him, according to police and media reports. Keith McAllister, 61, was killed at the Nassau Open MRI clinic in Westbury, Long Island, after he accompanied his wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, there on 16 July. Adrienne told the local outlet News 12 Long Island that an MRI machine there was scanning her knee when she called out to her husband, 'Keith, come help me up' from the table. The technician operating the machine – which looks like a long, narrow tube with openings on each end – then allowed Keith to walk in while he donned a nearly 20lb (9kg) metal chain that he used for weight training. Police in Nassau county, New York, said Keith was then sucked into the device by its potent magnetic force. He endured 'a medical episode' at that point which left him in critical condition at a hospital, and he was pronounced dead a day later, police said. Adrienne told News 12 that her late husband had suffered several heart attacks after the incident with the MRI machine and before his death. She recalled, through tears, 'seeing the machine snatch him and pull him into the machine'. She said she implored for the clinic to call for emergency help and, referring to the machine, to 'turn this damn thing off!' But eventually Keith 'went limp in my arms,' Adrienne recounted. 'This is still pulsating in my brain.' Adrienne told News 12 that she and her husband had previously been to Nassau Open MRI, and he had worn his weight-training chain there before. 'This was not the first time that guy [had] seen that chain,' Adrienne said to the station. 'They had a conversation about it before.' A person who picked up a phone call to Nassau Open MRI on Monday said the facility had no comment. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates MRI safety and warns that scans with the technology can create a 'strong, static magnetic field' that poses physical hazards. The agency says that 'careful screening of people and objects entering the MRI environment is critical to ensure nothing enters the magnet area that may become a projectile' and dangerous to anyone nearby. The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, meanwhile, cautions that MRI machines exerts 'very powerful forces on objects of iron, some steels and other magnetizable objects' and have the strength 'to fling a wheelchair across the room'. McAllister was not the first person killed by an MRI machine in New York. In 2001, Michael Colombini, 6, died when an oxygen tank flew into an MRI chamber that he was in, having been pulled in by the machine at a medical center in Westchester county.
