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People Who Working Longer Hours Twice As Likely To Go Bald

People Who Working Longer Hours Twice As Likely To Go Bald

Stresshead = Slaphead

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Bad news for those who are career-driven, but also enjoy having luxurious locks. Researchers have discovered that people who work more than 52 hours each week are twice as likely to end up going bald.

That's fine, because most of us work only 40 hours each week - or at least, that's what we're contracted to - but in other countries, such as South Korea, it's commonplace to work much longer hours.

That's why the study into the links between extensive working and hair loss, which took results from 13,000 men, has now been done for the first time.

The science goes thusly - stress causes a change in hormone levels in certain areas of the body, including the scalp.

It's stressful work, plotting to dominate the Wizarding World.
PA

When you get stressed, the hormonal change can inhibit the growth of hair follicles on the scalp. We already know from previous research that stress causes our immune system to attack hair follicles.

However, we don't know why.

It has also been posited that stress alters the 'catagen' or resting phase. That's basically when hair stops actively growing.

If you prematurely enter that phase, that means you're on a slippery slope to a slippery scalp, unfortunately.

The academics behind this research now reckon that legislators should have a more stringent approach to the amount of hours that people are allowed to work.

No point losing your hair over it.
PA

It's not just because people are going bald, but also because stress has a load of other negative effects.

The researchers from Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in South Korea studied more than 13,000 men between the ages of 20 and 59 between 2013 and 2017.

They split them into groups based upon the hours that they worked, then collected the data.

Other factors such as marital status, income, smoking, and others were also considered.

They found that working longer hours was significantly linked to baldness.

Lead author Kyung-Hun Son said: 'The results of this study demonstrate that long working hours is significantly associated with the increased development of alopecia in male workers.

'Limitation of working hours in order to prevent alopecia development may be more necessary from younger workers, such as those in the 20s and 30s, at which hair loss symptoms start to appear.'

Come on mate, take a holiday.
PA

'Preventive interventions to promote appropriate and reasonable working hours are required in our society.'

The research, which was published in the Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, didn't include women.

Son added: 'A lot of studies have revealed the mechanism of alopecia development by stress.

'In mice experiments, stress was significantly related to the inhibition of hair growth, induction of catagen cycle, and damage of hair follicles.

'Other researches have also suggested that stress can affect injuries and inflammations of hair follicles, cell deaths, and inhibit hair growth.

'Based on these previous researches, we can cautiously assume that the relationship between long working hours and the development of alopecia is likely to be mediated by job-related stress.'

There you have it. If you want to keep your locks, have a day off.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Science, World News, Interesting, Weird