[Physical effort at workplace: a risk factor for or a protection against the development of cardiovascular diseases]

Physical effort is considered to be beneficial to the cardiovascular function and the whole system in general. People experiencing physical effort are usually characterized by better physical fitness and efficiency, effort tolerance, slower resting heart rate, better plasma lipids profile, lower body weight, lower blood pressure, lower thrombocyte aggregation activity and higher plasma fibrinolytic activity. All those advantages are associated with the physical activity practiced during workers' leisure time, but physical effort at workplace is not so beneficial. Numerous data suggest that hard physical work may be a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases. It is estimated that only 10 percent of the working population show at workplace a sufficient level of dynamic effort that could improve their circulatory system function. This paper presents a critical overview of the literature on those problems.