Nursing

In the news: Working the nightshift could pose health risks

Stressed Out Nurses Weekly, March 9, 2009

Nightshift nurses work hard throughout the hours of darkness to improve the health of their patients, but can doing so take a toll on their own wellbeing?

Recent research published in an online issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests yes.

Performing shift work—professional labor differing from the typical 9 a.m.-5 p.m. schedule—could result in hormonal and metabolic changes leading to diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, according to study authors. Researchers observed circadian rhythm, which is the body's 24-hour biological clock, in five men and five women using a laboratory test simulating the acute effects of regular shift work. Subjects, who were studied while maintaining a 28-hour sleeping and eating pattern that shifted over 10 days, experienced several bodily changes and fell out of rhythm.

Researchers observed a decline in subjects' leptin levels, a weight-regulating hormone that may spur food cravings and decrease activity raising the risk of obesity. Subjects' blood sugar and insulin levels also fluctuated, weakening their glucose tolerance and reducing sensitivity to insulin as seen in diabetics.

Study authors advise further, more extensive research conducted outside a laboratory setting is needed.

Source: Medline Plus

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