Blood pressure soars on Mondays

Returning to work involves a stressful shift from leisure

The stress of returning to work on a Monday morning can trigger a dangerous increase in blood pressure, according to a study.

The Tokyo Women's Medical University study shows blood pressure readings are higher than at any other time of the week.

It may explain why deaths from heart attacks and strokes tend to peak on a Monday morning.

There are 20% more heart attacks on Mondays than on any other day.

Heart disease is Britain's biggest killer. Around 270,000 people suffer a heart attack every year and nearly one in three die before they even reach hospital.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects one in five people in the UK and is a major risk factor for heart disease. The higher it climbs, the greater the force exerted by blood on the walls of the arteries when the heart beats.

To see how it changed over the course of a week, researchers from Tokyo Women's Medical University in Japan, fitted 175 men and women with a device that would measure their blood pressure round-the-clock.

A week later the recruits returned the devices so that researchers could assess how blood pressure had changed.

The results, published in the American Journal of Hypertension, showed a surge in readings in those getting ready to go back to work on a Monday morning.

Volunteers who stayed asleep did not experience an increase, which suggests work-related stress is most likely to blame.

"Most people are free of the mental and physical burdens of work on a Sunday and experience a more stressful change from weekend leisure activities to work activities on Mondays," said Dr Murakami, who led the research.

"There was a distinct peak on Mondays in this study."

Professor Keith Fox, from the cardiovascular research unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, told reporters an early morning rise in blood pressure is probably a normal part of the body's 24-hour rhythm and unlikely to be a problem for healthy people.

But he said: "If somebody already has cardiovascular disease then it might just tip them over the edge and trigger a heart attack.

(BBC)

一項研究表明，周一早上重返工作時的壓力可以導致血壓升高到危險的程度。

東京女子醫科大學的研究表明，周一的血壓讀數比一周當中的任何其他時段都要高。

這也許可以解釋為什麼由心臟病發作和中風引起的死亡率總會在周一早上達到頂峰。

周一，心臟病的發病率比平時高出20%。

心臟病是英國人的最大殺手，每年約有27萬人心臟病發作，並有近1/3的人在送抵醫院之前就停止了呼吸。

每5個英國人中就有1個患有高血壓，高血壓是心臟病發作的主要誘因。血壓升得越高，心臟跳動時血液對動脈壁施加的壓力就越大。

為了觀察血壓在一周內不同時段的變化狀況，日本東京女子醫科大學的研究者們給175名男女受試者配帶了可以全天候測量血壓的儀器。

一周後，受試者把儀器送回來，研究者們就可以觀測血壓的變化狀況了。

該研究結果發表在《美國高血壓雜誌》上，結果顯示，周一早上準備返回工作的人們的血壓讀數急速升高。

（周一早上）繼續睡覺的志願者們的血壓沒有上升，這說明工作的壓力是「罪魁禍首」。

主持這項研究的村上醫生說：「很多人在星期天卸下了工作帶來的精神和身體上的負擔，但是從周末的休閒活動轉換到周一的工作狀態時，他們面臨的壓力更大。」

「研究顯示，每到周一，（血壓）就會出現一個明顯的高峰。」

愛丁堡皇家醫院心血管研究組的基思·福克斯教授告訴記者，血壓在清晨升高可能是人體24小時律動的一種正常現象，對於健康的人來說這不是什麼問題。

但他說：「如果有的人本來就有心血管疾病，那這就可能把他們逼到臨界點，導致心臟病發作。」

（中國日報網站譯）