BS: Cancer & the Night Shift

Subject: RE: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: alison
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 09:16 PM

oohh goodie... lots of things to look forward to.......

mind you I'm permanent night rather than a bit of both... which can really screw up your metabolism........

nights suit me..... the shifts nurses work on days over here are much more antisocial and harder to organise child care / social life around...... but I can sleep anywhere at the drop of a hat... which helps..... people who can't sleep during the day shouldn't opt to do nights....

slainte


alison

Subject: RE: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 06:10 PM

I'd buy the stress bit. We shift workers have to deal with things geared to everyone working daytime hours. Interest groups, hobby clubs, Book discussion groups, and other things of interest that make life fulfilling tend to meet during the evening. I'm lucky that my book group meets in the morning and my Y excersize class class does also. I used to like second shift, but now I wish I could find a job that paid as well so I could change. Also, it is next to imposible to build friendships when you are working evenings.

Subject: RE: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: Kim C
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 01:09 PM

I think work causes cancer.

Subject: RE: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: Peg
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 11:33 AM

good point re: other factors. Stress is certainly connected to overall health, and working the swing shift can cause all sorts of stress...not the least, that caused by not being able to get sufficient sleep, as well as arranging day-care, accomplishing family chores, etc..

The connection seemingly sought here is the hormonal activity affected by natural light exposure and sleep patterns, and how that contributes to one's likelihood of cancer. It's interesting that it is breast, rectal and colon cancer specifically...all of these are actually related to fat consumption, too; do the night nurses eat from the vending machines more than the day shift? Most hospital cafeterias have round the clock access but I am sure some do not, and maybe salad bars and healthier options are not as readily available to the nightshift...or maybe since we are used to eating our "three squares" in daylight hours, night shift workers get by with sodas and candy and chips...

Most people exercise during the day; do night shift workers forgo exercise because it is too inconvenient or too dangerous etc. to do it at night? This would certainly be connected to cancer likelihood, especially the colo-rectal cancers, which are less common in those who exercise regularly.

Holistic healing traditions accept that the body has different systems which are at peak function, low function, or in a stage of renewal at certain hours of the day. For example, the liver renews itself (cells, resting after peak function, etc.) between 1 and 3 am, and working the night shift is bad for this because the liver achieves optimal renewal when the body is warm and at rest...the kidneys are at peak performance in the late afternoon, early evening, (3-7 pm) which is a good time to drink lots of water to flush them out...working the swing shift may disrupt this time-table...

I think that is an important distinction to be made here; are they night shift workers who always work nights? Or swing shift workers who must readjust their body clock every few days? I would think the latter is far more detrimental to one's health routine...

I had already sent this to a friend who works some night shifts as a respiratory therapist. Her response: "I'm eating my broccoli!"

Subject: RE: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: Gareth
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 06:44 PM

Actually, I think Amos has it on the nail. Shift workers tend, in the UK, particullally if they are femalle, to be poorely paid, and thus more prone to any problems of Low Income.

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: Amos
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 06:01 PM

Like sleep deprivation, for example. Or going against the traffic at rush hour.



A

Subject: RE: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: Nerd
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 05:51 PM

This is not a controlled study, it must be the famous "Nurses Study." They simply collect all manner of data from Nurses throughout their lives and then find all sorts of correlations. The problem is, it isn't controlled. The Night Shift could be producing cancer because of stress, or artificial light, or air conditioning after dark, or exposure to toxins while sleepy, or unreported sex with doctors (hey, they need to put some explanation on the form, how about "night shift?). The good thing about the study is it allows researchers to see what correlations are there and then come up with hypotheses to test in real, controlled experiments. The downside is that the media gets a hold of the correlations and every week we get a story like "Now Doctors at Harvard are saying that working at night increases your risk of cancer."

There's an example of this in WYSIWYG's original post:

"The researchers studied 78,586 women who worked at least three night shifts per week for 15 yrs. These women had a 35% greater risk of colon or rectal cancer."

In fact, they showed a greater incidence, not a greater risk. Nobody knows if working at night increases the risk. They just know that something about women who work at night makes them get cancer more often than those who don't. It isn't necessarily working at night that does it, it may be a related feature of some kind.

Subject: RE: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: Amos
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 11:24 AM

Such as income-deficiency syndrome?

A

Subject: RE: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: Allan C.
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 06:27 PM

I was so hoping this was about some rock band...but no-o-o-o!

I would submit that the night shift is not good for man nor beast and if a similar study were done among men, some sort of major ailment (if not cancer) would be found to be common among them.

Subject: RE: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 06:15 PM

Thanks,for,posting,this,Susan.
I'm,sure,,youv;e,just,cheered,up,all,the,women,that,work,nights!
Well-Done.

Subject: RE: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 06:07 PM

The most sure-fired way of getting cancer is being born.

Good to see the study though. But with 78,000 or so women, the variability rate must have been quite high. Curious too. I have never seen a controlled study with that many participants.

Subject: RE: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 03:47 PM

Oh, yippee, one more study telling us how we may get "it". Honestly with the stuff we have going on here, right now, I don't think we needed to see this in a thread title. Just my opinion.

Subject: BS: Cancer & the Night Shift
From: wysiwyg
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 03:30 PM

From a mail list:

In a study at Havard Medical School and B and W Hospital in Boston comes support of earlier research that women who work regular night shifts have a higher risk of breast cancer.

Women's cancers are often linked with estrogen, and melatonin may play a more important role than thought in the past. Data is beginning to show that it may be melatonin (not estrogen) is influencing cancer risk, reports Dr. Eva Schernhammer who led the study.

Melatonin is produced at night and regular exposure to sunlight affects production cycle. Artifical light suppresses its production. Melatonin has well established anticarcinogenic properties and the melatonin pathway could offer one explanation for the increased risk, the researchers noted, but urged further study.

The researchers studied 78,586 women who worked at least three night shifts per week for 15 yrs. These women had a 35% greater risk of colon or rectal cancer.

~Susan