Women with risk of breast cancer should not work night shifts.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Irregular sleeping habits may contribute to the onset of cancer, a new study published in Current Biology recently reported.
“To our knowledge, this is the first study that unequivocally shows a link between chronic [light/dark] inversions and breast cancer development,” wrote the authors.
The study, which was performed on mice, also indicated animals with irregular sleeping patterns were 20 percent heavier than their well-rested counterparts despite eating the same diet.
For the study, mice at risk of developing breast cancer had their body clock pushed back by 12 hours every week for a year. The mice would normally have tumors after 50 weeks, but the tumors appeared eight weeks earlier with regular disruption to their sleeping patterns, reported CBS Atlanta.
Dr. Michael Hastings, from the U.K.’s Medical Research Council, told the BBC: “I consider this study to give the definitive experimental proof, in mouse models, that circadian [body clock] disruption can accelerate the development of breast cancer.”
The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has disclosed that insufficient sleep and sleep disruption is considered a public health epidemic. The CDC recommends people go to bed around the same time each night and rise at the same time in the morning to help build healthy sleep hygiene.
Though further research is needed, the researchers recommend women with a family risk of breast cancer should never work a night shift. However, in a 24-hour world economy, their recommendation may be increasingly difficult to follow, noted Medical Daily.
“The general public health message coming out of my area of work is shift work, particularly rotational shift work is a stress and therefore it has consequences … There are things people should be looking out for – pay more attention to your body weight, pay more attention to inspecting breasts, and employers should offer more in-work health checks,” Hastings said.