People who work night shifts have
a 35 percent higher risk of obesity because the nocturnal schedule
derails their metabolism, a study claims.
Artificial light during night shifts disrupts the brain's melatonin levels and hinders the body's metabolism.
Someone who works at night will then gain more weight quicker because the metabolism is working slower than normal.
More
than 3.4 million people worldwide die every year from obesity related
ailments including diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular disease.
Experts recommend altering the work schedule to avoid working night hours in order to reduce the global obesity epidemic.
Researchers from the Chinese
University in Hong Kong analyzed the shift patterns of employees and how
it compared to their health.
His
team pooled data from 28 previous studies involving hundreds of
thousands of participants across the world including healthcare workers,
manufacturing employees, local government staff and bus and truck
drivers.
Senior author Dr Lap Ah Tse said: 'Globally, nearly 0.7 billion workers are engaged in a shift work pattern.
'Our study revealed much of the obesity and overweight among shift workers is attributable to such a job nature.'
They found night shift workers had a 29 percent increased risk of becoming obese or overweight.
'Obesity
has been evident to be positively associated with several adverse
health outcomes, such as breast cancer and cardiovascular diseases,' Dr
Tse said.
The
analysis, published in Obesity Reviews, also showed the risk of
abdominal obesity, the most dangerous type where fat builds around the
stomach and damages organs, was 35 percent greater.
Dr
Tse said exposure to artificial light at night disrupts the body clock,
or circadian rhythm, reducing production of the sleep hormone melatonin
that plays an important role in preventing disease.
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