Link between cancer and working nights?

[GoofyDoc]

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http://www.newsweek.com/id/72850
So there's apparently a correlation between working night shifts and cancer rates. 🙁

I believe this is the report they're referring to:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=17805428

 

[Geri_Gal]

Great. Residency causes cancer.

 

[Faebinder]

Allow me to teach you something about correlation statistics.

In the 1900s.... more and more american houses owned colored TVs as the years passed.

In the 1900s... there was an increased rate of people dying from MI as the years passed.

If you were to correlate both together, one can conclude that colored TVs caused more MIs.

You are more likely to die as you grow in age after your first 5 years. Also, the more you grow in age, the more people you know... does that mean that knowing more people will cause you to die?

The bottom line is: A correlation relationship does not imply causality. If you don't have somewhat of a cause-effect relationship between the two factors being correlated then it's not very worthwhile of a correlation.

You might argue that disruption of sleep makes you more likely to gain weight and that makes you more likely to get cancer.

 

[yaah]

If they didn't control for cigarette smoking then the study is BS, as in my experience night shift workers smoke at about 10 times the rate of day shift workers.

 

[Doowai]

Interesting.

Do night shift smokers smoke more because they work nights (need to stimulate the nicotinic receptors in the brain?) - if indeed the observation is true.

Certainly missing sleep causes hormonal abnormalities : testosterone is much lower in men who work nights or even miss a night of sleep (countless studies document this). IGF-1 and other such hormones are much much lower as they are sleep dependant as we age. Cortisol is much higher. Sleeping during the night could mean less sunlight exposure which means less vitamin D, and certainly studies indicate vitamin D levels correlate with cancer.

I personally believe the data.

I also think, man up and don't be a wussy. Luckily police and soldiers aren't avoiding their work (at least often) because there is risk involved.

Why is medicine full of such girly men?