Medical implications of shift-work.
The circadian pacemakers, which time the approximately 24-hour rhythms in sleep and wakefulness, neuroendocrine, thermoregulatory, and other body functions, resynchronize only slowly after an abrupt phase shift in environmental time cues. While the symptoms of jet-lag are transient, the kinds of repeated shifts over a number of years experienced by shift-workers on rotating schedules induce sleep-wake disorders, gastrointestinal pathology, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. There is significant interindividual variation in the ability to adapt and also a deterioration with age. Evidence is accumulating that poor adapters present with a Shift Maladaption Syndrome with characteristic pathological manifestations.
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D003463:Cues; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D012306:Risk; D013577:Syndrome; D014195:Travel; D014937:Work; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance