This is What Heavy Traffic and Long Commutes are Doing on your Body and Mental Health

It’s back to school again! Surges of students come along with employees everyday, filling busy streets and congesting major roads in the metro. 

Rush hours on roads like EDSA were also back again on its track. Aside from being late at school or work or getting home late at night, being stuck in traffic has significant impacts on your body and mental health. 

A study conducted among British people by VitalityHealth with the University of Cambridge, RAND Europe and Mercer shows that short commutes brings a person more productive time while long commutes doesn’t just bring unproductivity but bad effects on their mental well-being. 

Apparently, they are more at risks  to suffer depression as 40{cee2002f739e7296570a1535f296f4aba2d6d38c2e845de34f2a289022b9ebe8} of them are more prone to think of their financial woes while 12{cee2002f739e7296570a1535f296f4aba2d6d38c2e845de34f2a289022b9ebe8} tends to worry more their work/school-related issues. 

As they commonly acquire sleep below the recommended seven hours, they are more likely to become obese. 


Shaun Subel, director of strategy at VitalityHealth said that this implications have something to do with people’s daily routine and on how it affects their personal health and performance. 

Subel suggested that conduciveness of facilities and adjusting hours of work or study could aid this problem. 


“Allowing employees the flexibility to avoid the rush-hour commute where possible, or fit their routine around other commitments can help reduce stress and promote healthier lifestyle choices and, importantly, this is shown to actually impact positively on productivity,” he added. 


Source: Independent
Image: Philippine Star