Long working hours may not only be bad for you, but they may also be changing the structure of your brain, suggests a new study. The survey, published on Tuesday (13) found “significant changes” in the brains of people who were overwhelmed, a combination of physical and emotional exhaustion, as well as lack of rest.
THE search It was conducted by two scientists from the South Korea Chung-Ang and Yonsei universities, who accompanied 110 health professionals classified into “overloaded” and “non-overloaded” groups. In South Korea, where 52 hours of work per week is the maximum legal limit, overwork has become a public health concern.
The overloaded group, working 52 hours or more a week, consisted of 32 people who were on average younger, with less time of employment and higher polite compared to those who worked normal hours.
By comparing data from a different study and magnetic resonance imaging, researchers were able to use a neuroimaging technique to analyze the brain volume of workers.
The technique allowed to identify and compare differences in gray matter levels in different regions of the brain, while the application of atlas based analysis allowed to identify and label structures in brain exams.
“People who worked 52 or more hours a week had significant changes in brain regions associated with executive function and emotional regulation, unlike participants who worked normal hours,” the researchers said in a press release.
The areas of the brain that have shown an increase in volume include the average frontal turn, which plays an important role in cognitive functions, attention, memory and processes related to language, as well as the insula, which is involved in emotional processing, self -awareness and understanding of the social context.
Researchers believe that their findings suggest a “potential relationship” between increased workload and changes in these parts of the brain, providing a biological basis for the cognitive and emotional challenges reported by overloaded people.
Joon Yul Choi, co -author of the study and assistant professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Yonsei University, told CNN that these changes can be “at least in part, reversible” if environmental stressors are reversed. Still, returning to the initial state of the brain can take much longer.
“New evidence”
Previous research has also found evidence of the negative impacts of long working hours on health. In 2021, a joint research The International Labor Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that overwork has led to more than 745,000 deaths in one year.
Long hours have also been associated with increased risk of diabetes in women and contributes to a decline in cognitive capacity.
Although these behavioral and psychological consequences of over work are well known, underlying neurological mechanisms and changes in anatomy are less understood, the study explained.
Frank Pega, who led the OMS-Oit study of 2021, told the CNN That these latest findings constitute “new important evidence” that could help better understand how long hours of work impact “radically” the physical health of workers.
Pega, a WHO technical officer who was not involved in this last study, said the research supports WHO-Oit’s findings that “long hours of work contribute to the higher load of diseases among all occupational risk factors identified so far.”
However, the small size of the study sample and focus only on health professionals in South Korea make it difficult to generalize the results. “More studies in different populations are needed,” he said.
“Although the results should be interpreted with caution due to the exploratory nature of this pilot study, they represent a significant first step in understanding the relationship between overwork and brain health,” the researchers said.
And for those who are stuck to work many hours? Now you can have a scientific basis to reduce your working time.
“Governments, employers and workers can take steps to protect health from workers from working hours,” he advised, citing laws, regulations and policies that can guarantee healthy hours of work.
“The results emphasize the importance of approaching over work as an occupational health concern,” said the authors of the study.
Jonny Gifford, lead researcher at the Institute of Employment Studies in Brighton, England, who was not involved in the study, said to CNN that the research “confirms some physiological reasons why work long hours affects our well-being.”
“The use of brain scanning equipment to provide neurological explanations provides new powerful evidence that connects over work to structural changes in parts of the brain involved in executive function and emotional regulation,” he said.
“It is a small study with 110 health professionals in Korea, but, as it is based on robust neurological measures and addresses fundamental mechanisms (overwork and fatigue) that can affect anyone, central discoveries are widely relevant,” added Gifford.
The study was published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
*Jack Guy, from CNN, contributed to this report.
This content was originally published in working too much can change the structure of your brain, says study on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil

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