Stress is a known risk factor, as is a work day of more than 9 hours, six days a week
* Ahmed (name changed) was 46 years old. It was a normal afternoon in the office of the media organisation where he worked. In preparation for the daily evening meeting, he asked his secretary to take a few printouts while he came back from the toilet. Several minutes later he was found on the floor of the toilet. He had suffered a massive cardiac arrest that he never recovered from.
* It was a morning like any other and Rajesh (name changed) who worked in a senior position in a media organisation was just back from his daily round of the market. He usually went to office post lunch. He told his wife he was not feeling well and would lie down for a bit. A few hours later, he was dead.
While the two deaths were shocking, long hours at the workplace, high stress levels, late nights and faulty lifestyles make mediapersons among the most vulnerable people when it comes to the risk of sudden cardiac deaths, commonly known as heart attack; in effect sudden cardiac death is caused by a heart attack.
Working long hours (>55 hours on the average week) is also related to a ∼40% excess risk of incident CHD
Mayo Clinic defines heart attack as a condition precipitated by blockage to “the flow of blood to the heart, most often by a build-up of fat, cholesterol and other substances, which form a plaque in the arteries that feed the heart (coronary arteries). The interrupted blood flow can damage or destroy part of the heart muscle.”
Symptoms of Heart Attack
A review of publications on the risk factors of coronary heart disease in the Annual Review of Public Health in 2013 found that not only is stress a risk factor for heart diseases, so is long working long hours – more than 55 hours per week. That would mean a little over 9 hours per week.
That for many people in media houses is just about an average work day.
The review said: “Estimates for the association of CHD with exposure to stress at work or “job strain” (i.e., high job demands combined with low control) are of similar magnitude…Working long hours (>55 hours on the average week) is also related to a ∼40% excess risk of incident CHD”.
Chronic stress, both at early life and adulthood, has been associated with ∼40–60% excess risk of CHD, it added.
Statistics show that up to a quarter of all heart attacks may come without any warning. There are interruptions to the blood flow to the heart leading up to it but they are painless, so that when the catastrophe strikes the patient has no idea what is coming. It is known as “silent ischemia”.
That is why it may be imperative for people in high stress jobs such as that of mediapersons, police personnel and doctors to go for at least one health checkup annually.
It is a tragedy that people who tell everybody’s stories need someone else to tell theirs.
