Researchers advise women working night shifts to have regular physical examinations and cancer screenings
| Updated: Jan 9, 2018, 16:16 IST
Many professions across the globe require people to work odd hours and late-night shifts. However, various studies indicate that late-night shifts often tend to cause an imbalance within your system and lead to health issues. And even though you may not particularly be feeling uneasy about working during those late hours, your health is ultimately bearing the brunt of the changes in your body-clock and lifestyle.
Many studies have associated night shifts with health conditions like obesity, obstruction in the body's ability to repair DNA damage, liver damage, and diabetes to name a few. Lead author, Xuelei Ma explained that because breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer among women worldwide, most previous meta-analyses have focused on understanding the association between female night shift workers and breast cancer risk, but the conclusions have been inconsistent. However, after a detailed study (with participants from North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia) that looked into long-term night shift work and risk of six types of cancer, the study did prove positive.
Overall, long-term night shift work among women increased the risk of cancer by 19 percent. When analyzing specific cancers, the researchers found that this population had an increased risk of skin (41 percent), breast (32 percent), and gastrointestinal cancer (18 percent) compared with women who did not perform long-term night shift work. "We were surprised to see the association between night shift work and breast cancer risk only among women in North America and Europe," said Ma. "It is possible that women in these locations have higher sex hormone levels, which have been positively associated with hormone-related cancers such as breast cancer," continued the author.
Many studies have associated night shifts with health conditions like obesity, obstruction in the body's ability to repair DNA damage, liver damage, and diabetes to name a few. Lead author, Xuelei Ma explained that because breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer among women worldwide, most previous meta-analyses have focused on understanding the association between female night shift workers and breast cancer risk, but the conclusions have been inconsistent. However, after a detailed study (with participants from North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia) that looked into long-term night shift work and risk of six types of cancer, the study did prove positive.
Overall, long-term night shift work among women increased the risk of cancer by 19 percent. When analyzing specific cancers, the researchers found that this population had an increased risk of skin (41 percent), breast (32 percent), and gastrointestinal cancer (18 percent) compared with women who did not perform long-term night shift work. "We were surprised to see the association between night shift work and breast cancer risk only among women in North America and Europe," said Ma. "It is possible that women in these locations have higher sex hormone levels, which have been positively associated with hormone-related cancers such as breast cancer," continued the author.