Study finds office workers are more prone to blood clots.
The study covered 62 patients aged under 65 who were admitted to hospital with blood clots.
Beasley said a surprise finding of the study was that “people are working for so long. We had people not uncommonly working up to 12-14 hours a day and being seated for that time.”
I have to agree with Professor Richard Beasley here; it’s quite shocking how much people work. If it’s not overtime at one job, it’s working two or even three jobs just so you’re not living paycheck to paycheck.
This particular type of blood clot (deep-vein thrombosis) had been more associated with those who spent most of their time travelling long distances (usually in planes), but now the percentage of office workers admitted to the hospital with blood clots is much higher.
When the hell did we allow work to completely consume our lives? I think it’s time for a revolution; this system bores me.
Read the full article here.
Very interesting article indeed……..the title reminded me of the Kanye West song, through the wire, so I opted to include the lyrics that I began to sing in my head when I came across this post.
“The doctor said I had blood clots
But I ain’t Jamaican man
Story on MTV and I ain’t trying to make the band
I swear this right here is history in the making man”
[lyrics found here: .azlyrics.com]
Comment by Scott — March 14, 2007 @ 9:36 pm
Well it’s tough because there is competition for wages overseas and I think one of the biggest fears in the U.S. is being unemployed. What would people think? How would you eat? Etc. Etc.
The thing is, the person getting sick or working the crazy hours isn’t the astute business owner, but rather the worker bee.
Things became so messed up after the industrial revolution, but in our time, with the information revolution, we rose high and fell hard. We’ve see a peak of prosperity and now aspire for that again, and yet the competition for jobs, and real products and services is fierce.
We must keep our entrepreneurial spirit and keep advancing forward.
Great song by Kanye bye the way.
Comment by Eric Brown — March 15, 2007 @ 12:22 am
Hiya - very interesting and thought-provoking article. I work in a data-entry position and spend all day at a puter. But I have a program I use at work called RSI Guard ( rsiguard dot com ) which is used to prevent Repetitive Strain Injuries. It monitors the intensity and speed of your keystrokes, as well as the prolonged use of the mouse (which seem to be my main issue at the moment). You can pick points on the body which feel strain or pain and it works out from this when and how long you should take a break; what sort of streches to perform, and sets break time, ranging from 2-7 minutes or so. It has worked wonders for me. I used to go home with everything hurting each day; now it is much better. (The only thing it doesn’t do, is tell you to rub your eyes every 20min-1/2 hour, and I tend to get headaches when my eyes are staring at a puter monitor for too long!) I imagine because it reminds you to get up and walk around, stretch, breathe deeply and relax, &c., that it would also help with the DVT problem, though this isn’t explicitly stated as far as I’m aware.
Anyway I realise the main point of your post was that we are workaholics, and that concerns me a great deal. I wonder if it’s much more pronounced for high-pressure jobs like CEO’s - and if it’s this bad for me as a data-entry drone, how much worse off are those folks?
Off on a slight tangent: what really bothers me is that everyone is expected to be contactable 24-7 now, with mobile phones and PDAs, and checking work emails at home, in transit, whatever. Virtually nobody is allowed to leave work ‘at work’ anymore.
Comment by london_meeja_whore — March 15, 2007 @ 4:53 am