George Brainard, neurologist at the University of Pennsylvania, says, “if light exposure at night is a risk factor for woman to develop breast cancer or for a man to develop prostate cancer, if that’s true, then we really need to know how much light and what quality of light and often and at what time of night it is most problematic”
With shift workers they are exposed to light at a time their body needs darkness in order to produce the rightful amount of melatonin, and without the needed intake of darkness and melatonin their bodies can have very harmful reactions. Brainard makes a good suggestion to find out just how much light is too much? If there could be artificial supplements to make up for loss of melatonin it could also help. Brainard is looking for solutions to this problem. It seems that the majority of the women in these cases were nurses, maybe it is the florescent lighting, and maybe it is the strenuous activity, compared to someone who sits at a desk all night? Does it effect taxi cab drivers or police officers who patrol at night?
In the Danish government they have compensated women in their community who have gotten breast cancer due to overnight shifts. We need to find a solution to this problem rather it be shorter shifts with less interaction with the light during night time hours. Does it help if you sleep in complete darkness during the day? Is their ways to get the correct amount of melatonin in your body without the sleep at night? How will they do these studies? People are going to be more scared to work night shifts I know I am. What difference does it make on someone young compared to some one middle aged if any? This is going to take lots of research and I do not see a solution near in the future unless said supplement is possible, because the amount of research on this topic is going to be of abundance and it will be hard to test all different test with different light different exposure time to the light age differential and sex and race. It is said to be majority of Asian and Caucasian women. What does the race change?
The risks of working overnight are high in numbers from metabolism problems, weight, back, brain responsiveness, and cancer.
It seems that you are very researched in this topic, which to me says that you have a personal interest in the matter. I think that with the amount of information you have in this blog entry alone will set you up for a very interesting and detailed research paper. I hope it went well!
ReplyDeleteI remember in class you mentioning you work night shifts, I would be scared as well if I worked during the night. I strongly agree that much for research and information should be researched about this topic and how much light can or possibly can cause cancer in both, male and female. Does this only happen with night shifts or can one also be at risk due to staying up late? Now i am extremely curious because i tend to go to bed late at night while watching movies or tv and leave them on druing the night. This is very interesting and gets one thinking but also scares me.
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