All heart
Industry news
All heart
Researchers at the University of Surrey are trying to find ways of reducing the high levels of heart disease and other health problems in shift workers thanks to a grant of over £85,000 from the British Heart Foundation. The project could have enormous implications for health, as up to 25 per cent of workers in industrialised countries have irregular or different working hours. Previous research by Dr Shelagh Hampton and her colleagues has shown that the body's ability to process food is altered when shift workers change their time patterns. These changes can lead to increased fat and hormone levels in the bloodstream, which are known risk factors for heart disease. The new project aims to find out if changes in sleeping patterns, times of exposure to bright light, or changes in diet can help the body's response to changing working hours. Volunteers from the university are being asked to take part in a range of experiments combining different sleeping patterns with exposure to light, meal changes and also the hormone melatonin.
