Investigators in Finland found that among the almost 800 workers, whom they followed during 28 years, those that said that they did not manage "to recover" of the weekly work during the weekend were more prone to die of cardiovascular problems.

Meanwhile, in the men and the women who "rarely " recovered of the fatigue and labor stress the probabilities tripled of dying of disease cardiac or cerebrovascular accidents (CVA), compared with those participants who "almost always" recovered the energy.

This risk was independent of other well-known cardiac dangers, such as hypertension, high cholesterol, sedentary and smoking habits, as well as psychological factors such as depression and work related stress.

People who do not recover their energies during their week-ends off, could show signs of underlying atherosclerosis, an accumulation of plaques in the arteries that cause cardiac disease or ACV, explained Doctor Mika Kivimaki, main author of the study.

But that does not completely explain the results, since many deaths -among the workers- occurred several years after the survey, commented Kivimaki, professor and investigator of the University of Helsinki and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.

However, the impossibility to recover from work would be often an "risk indicator" of future cardiovascular disease, indicated the specialist.

Continuous stress would cause cardiac disease or ACV

With time, continuous stress in the cardiovascular, hormonal and immune systems would cause cardiac disease or ACV.

The study , published in the Psychosomatic Medicine journal, analyzed data from 788 polled employees of a Finnish factory over such items as their health, family habits, life style and background.

Workers also responded to questions on labor stress and recovery capacity, including if the weekend used was enough to overcome the fatigue and stress generated during the working hours.

The team directed by Kivimaki made a follow-up on the number of deaths by cardiovascular disease and other causes. The researchers discovered that the workers who had said that rarely had time to recover were more prone than others to death by cardiovascular disease, but not by other causes.

Kivimaki suggested that people who do not manage to recover their energies during week-ends had to try and analyze the possible reasons for this, to be able to modify this situation.

'Is the excess of stress at work or in the private life related to chronic depression, to high alcohol consumption or to something else, that can damage cardiac health?", the specialist questioned.