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LONDON (Reuters) - People working 10 or 11 hours a day are more likely to suffer serious heart problems, including heart attacks, than those clocking off after seven hours, researchers said on Tuesday.

The finding, from an 11-year study of 6,000 British civil servants, does not provide definitive proof that long hours cause coronary heart disease but it does show a clear link, which experts said may be due to stress.

In all, there were 369 cases of death due to heart disease, non-fatal heart attacks and angina among the London-based study group -- and the risk of having an adverse event was 60 percent higher for those who worked three to four hours overtime.

Working an extra one to two hours beyond a normal seven-hour day was not associated with increased risk.

"It seems there might a threshold, so it is not so bad if you work another hour or so more than usual," said Dr Marianna Virtanen, an epidemiologist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and University College London.

The higher incidence of heart problems among those working overtime was independent of a range of other risk factors including smoking, being overweight or having high cholesterol.

But Virtanen said it was possible the lifestyle of people working long hours deteriorated over time, for example as a result of poor diet or increased alcohol consumption.

More fundamentally, long hours may be associated with work-related stress, which interferes with metabolic processes, as well as "sickness presenteeism," whereby employees continue working when they are ill.

Virtanen and colleagues published their findings in the European Heart Journal.

Commenting on the study, Gordon McInnes, professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Glasgow's Western Infirmary, said the findings could have widespread implications for doctors assessing patients' heart risks.

"If the effect is truly causal, the importance is much greater than commonly recognized. Overtime-induced work stress might contribute to a substantial proportion of cardiovascular disease," he said.

Katy Perry is probably one happy "California Gurl" this week. The Maxim Magazine annual "Hot 100" list came out today, and the pop singer beat out the likes of Sports Illustrated swimsuit bombshell Brooklyn Decker and "Avatar" star Zoe Saldana for the top spot. Billed by Maxim as "The definitive list of the world's most beautiful women," the annual contest is a fierce competition between actresses, models, singers, reality-TV stars, and even the girlfriends of celebrities.

Calling this Perry's "supernova moment," in the Hot 100 issue of the magazine, Maxim's Editor-in-Chief Joe Levy explained Perry's appeal as more than just about her looks: "It's that feeling you get when you suddenly realize that the smartest, funniest, coolest girl you know also happens to be the best looking and a pretty good skateboarder, too."

When contacted by Yahoo!, Levy jokingly explained the way in which the Hot 100 is determined. "The Maxim Hot 100 is a highly scientific selection process involving a hermetically sealed laboratory and blood pressure monitoring devices," Levy said. "But we've had to junk all the equipment, because the editors serving as test subjects busted it when someone brought a picture of Katy Perry in the room."

Perry, 25, has been on the public radar already lately -- her latest single, "California Gurls," hit the airwaves late last week, and she got attention at the Met's Costume Institute Gala last week when she showed up in a glow-in-the-dark dress. And the singer is a tabloid favorite ever since she started dating British bad-boy comedian Russell Brand, who no doubt appreciates his fiancee's skateboarding skills in addition to her bikini-perfect figure.

Olivia Wilde moves down the list. Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage Last year's winner, "House's" Olivia Wilde, placed 20th on this year's list, which includes newcomers like "Modern Family's" Sofia Vergara (#47) and Ke$ha (#56), as well as regulars like Britney Spears (#54), Scarlett Johansson (#14), and Angelina Jolie (#38). Here are the ladies who round out this year's Top 10, and what Maxim had to say about their attributes:

1. Katy Perry

[She's] the hottest woman alive because she's sexy and because she's talented. But more important, because she's the best friend you suddenly realize you've loved your whole life."

2. Brooklyn Decker

This model and 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model is married to tennis star Andy Roddick. Says Maxim: "We think it's time to crown a new world supermodel...Let's go, Brooklyn!"

3. Zoe Saldana

"The scorchingly sexy "Avatar" star had dudes the world over learning to say 'Damn, she's hot,' in perfect Na'vi."

4. Blake Lively

"Gossip Girl's breakout bombshell was destined for stardom. Born in LA, she started acting at 11 and grew into the ultimate California girl."

Actress Olivia Munn places eighth. Steve Granitz/WireImage Brooklyn Decker, number two on the list. Jacob Andrzejczak/Getty Images

Maxim's "Hot 100" special issue will be included with the June issue of the magazine, on newsstands Tuesday.

At least, that was the promise of a press release that landed in the NEWSWEEK inboxes this morning. "Secret texting codes: Are kids having sex and getting high under your nose?" asked the release. It's true: Under Your Nose has become a popular make out spot for today's youth. The solution, says this e-mail, is an interview with two authors willing to discuss both the perils of sexting and the value of good manners. The authors can also help parents decode the secret texting codes teens use to talk about sex, drugs, and, presumably, bad manners. To wit:

LH6 . P911 . 8 . Al Capone . if your kids use secret texting codes like these, they just said "let's have sex (LH6)", "alert—parents coming into the room (P911)", "oral sex (8)" and "heroin (Al Capone)"

Make no mistake: that would have been one hell of a text. But what's more shocking is the continued attempts to rend garments over sexting, or the assumption that teenagers don't know how stupid sexting is. Last year, we interviewed Dr. Leslie R. Walker, director of adolescent medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital, who noted that most teens are already aware that sending naked photos or suggestive texts to someone is, like, totally dumb—they just don't think that their boyfriend or friends would ever betray them the way girls (because it's almost always girls) were humiliated by their pals and paramours.

She also made the very astute observation that kids who send text messages are the same kids who in previous generations played spin the bottle, or wrote dirty notes, or experimented with phone sex. In other words: teenagers are going to sexually experiment via whatever media and technologies they can get their hands on. Cell phones don't turn kids into sex-crazed maniacs, and cracking the code for "oral sex" won't stop kids from doing it—they'll just find another code. (As one NEWSWEEK staffer privy to the memo asked in fake horror, "If sex is 6, and oral sex is 8, I guess we can figure out what 7 is. But how many other numbers have the youngs co-opted??" The answer, according to another: "All of them." )

It's important to teach kids about respecting one another and themselves by limiting the circulation of raunchy texts and photos. It's also incredibly essential to talk to kids about sex, relationships, trust, and responsibility. But it's delusional to think that by "speaking their language" parents can put all illicit behavior to a stop—especially because it's implied that parent will use their new code-breaking skills to read your child's private cell-phone messages, which will both discredit and alienate parents trying to do good.

This is not to say that parents should just accept that their children will probably turn into sex-crazed heroin addicts. In fact, just the opposite: parents who have done a good job raising kids thus far, who have been open and honest with them from the start about sex, drugs, and responsible behavior, as opposed to specific chats about cell phone etiquette, have likely raised kids that will end up with high-school diplomas, not juvenile records. But freaking out about one's children sending secret heroin-fueled text messages just because that's what kids are doing these days won't have any positive effects: the real way to get through to kids is to talk to them early and often about big issues, not tech fads. Besides: if you need to snoop through your kids phones to find out if they're using heroin, a few tips on manners probably won't help.