We already know that the night shift may be hazardous to your health. And now, a new study finds that mixing up night shifts with day and evening work hours is associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes.
Published in PLoS Medicine, the analysis covers more than 177,000 women participating in two studies — the Nurse’s Health Study I and II. It found that diabetes risk increased with longer stints working rotating night shifts: women who worked on that schedule for three to nine years saw a 20% increased risk of the disease, while women reporting rotating night shifts for 10 to 19 years had a higher 40% risk and those for 20 years or more, a 58% higher risk than women who only worked days or evenings.
Some — but not all — of the additional risk can be pinned on increased weight. As An Pan, lead author of the study and a research fellow in the Harvard School of Public Health’s department of nutrition, tells the Health Blog via email, such an irregular schedule “is usually related to some unfavorable changes in health behaviors,” including physical inactivity and irregular meals…
Read the complete article @ WSJ Health Blog.
