Commuting to Work Could be Putting You At Risk

Every day in the media we are slammed with something that is negatively impacting our health. One day eggs are terrible for us, the next we need to eat them daily. One day we need to exercise every single day, the next we need to do moderate exercise three times a week. It’s hard to guess what’s going to be up for grabs next as things yo-yo back and forth between what’s good for us and what’s killing us. Well, right now, commuting is what’s on the chopping block, as it’s being linked to several things that are making it an unhealthy venture for us.

21,000 people ranging in age from 18-65 were examined for a study done by BMC Public Health. Each of these people commuted to their full time jobs every day, and were investigated to see how this commute factored into their daily healthy. The result of the study? People who commute via their car, a subway, train, or the bus have negative health impacts from the commuting. This is seen through less sleep, higher stress, more missed days of work, and sheer exhaustion.

To counteract that, those people who ride their bikes or walk to work have far less health complaints then their commuting counterparts.

“More research needs to be done to identify how exactly commuting is related to the ill health we observed in order to readdress the balance between economic needs, health, and the costs of working days lost,” Erik Hansson said, who was the study author and is from the Lund University in Sweden.

This correlates to the view that regular exercisers have less stress and better health then their inactive counterparts. It should be noted, though, that those suffering the highest levels of stress and poor health are those that travel for 30-60 minutes.

“The negative health of public transport users increased with journey time. However, the car drivers who commuted 30 – 60 minutes experienced worse health than those whose journey lasted more than one hour,” Hansson explained.

So for now, you should dust off your bike or your walking shoes and get moving. Sure it may mean that you have to wake up a few hours earlier to get there on time, but it will be worth it in the end. Of course, next week we’ll probably be dying from walking or biking to work, so don’t sell your cars just yet.

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