In a new study, researchers found that doing night shift work is linked to higher risks of diabetes and heart disease.
The findings suggest that the impact is long-term and could damage shift workers’ health.
The research was conducted by researchers at the University College of Medical Sciences, University of Delhi.
More than 20% of the population in industrial countries do night shift work, especially in sectors like healthcare and transportation.
Previous research has shown that shift workers have various health risks that can affect their sleep, breast cancer risk, and heart health.
This is because the body clock in these shift workers changes, which increases the risks of several chronic diseases and mental health problems.
However, it is unknown how shift work can have a long-term effect on the risk of heart disease and diabetes.
In the current study, the team aimed to understand the long-term health burden of night shift work.
They examined two groups of healthcare workers.
The first group included nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers aged 20 to 40 who had not done night shift in the last year or ever and had normal blood sugar levels.
The second group included people with the same professional background and age.
But this group had done lots of night shift work (more than 4 nights duties per month at least for last one year) and had normal blood sugar levels.
The researchers measured the blood pressure and blood sugar levels in both groups. After 12 hours of overnight fasting, participants were given a high-fat meal.
After comparing the fasting insulin levels and triglyceride levels in the two groups, they found that shift work influenced how triglycerides were broken down and how sugar was used in the body.
These negative influences could increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes because they affect how our body processes sugar and fat.
The researchers suggest that the finding provides a better understanding of why shift work is linked to heart and metabolic diseases in the long-term.
They hope their work can help develop new methods to reduce the incidence of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity in the future.
The lead author of the study is SV Madhu.
The study is published in Experimental Physiology.
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