Room lighting may cause breast cancer

[PhotonBoy]

Yahoo News link

"HARTFORD, Conn. - College researchers are studying whether electric light changes hormone levels in women and makes breast cancer more prevalent in developed countries....

"Their theory is that prolonged periods of exposure to artificial light disrupt the body's circadian rhythms — the inner biological clocks honed over thousands of years of evolution to regulate behaviors such as sleep and wakefulness. They are looking into whether that disruption affects levels of hormones such as melatonin and the workings of cellular machinery, and whether it triggers breast cancer...."

[PhotonWrangler]

I'm just an ordinary doofus, but I'd also wonder whether there's a relationship to exposure from EMF. One could directly correlate EMF exposure levels to that of "developed" nations.

[AndrewL]

I've not heard of the breast cancer bit before. I know that lighhting up rooms messes up our body clocks though

Is it just me or does everything increase the risk of breat cancer

[PhotonWrangler]

I believe there is a relationship between EMFs and certain types of leukemia. They've demonstrated that the application of an EMF field increases the rate of transcription of proteins among cells. Whether that's a good or bad thing is up for discussion, but there's no doubt in my mind that there is an effect.

[jtr1962]

[ QUOTE ]
AndrewL said:
Is it just me or does everything increase the risk of breat cancer

[/ QUOTE ]
No, it's not you. It seems everything these days is claimed to cause cancer of some sort. Also, it's funny how one week a certain food will be the worst thing for you and the following week it'll be OK. I've long given up paying any attention to this kind of stuff. Worrying about it probably causes more cancer than anything else.

[Lynx_Arc]

It is a known fact that living is the leading cause of cancer.

[LEDependent]

No wonder all my grandparents had cancer... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[UncleFester]

Oh no.... This is terrible! I think women should step into my parlor... er.. office for an immediate examination! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif[/img]

[albertindian]

Is this is true. Lights can create breast Cancer. I Think now in this world nothing is safe.

Albert
disc profile : disc personality test : disc test

[PhotonBoy]

Now that man has been using fire and artificial light for quite a while, our society has developed into a 24/7 culture. Edison's invention of the light bulb and the electrical distribution system has greatly accelerated this trend. In 20,000 years I think the need for sleep in humans will disappear.

[James S]

hormonal causes for cancer are a very subtle and hard to pin down thing. All the studies that try to simplify a very complex issue to a few buzzwords for a news headline are invariably negated by another study the following week or month.

In the case of women and hormones, the studies can't ever agree about the reduction in some cancers vs the increase in others for women taking the birth control pill, which contains an order of magnitude more hormones than those affected by being well lit.

What it comes down to is that unnatural sleeping and working habits are hard on the human body. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody should it? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] Same thing for eating habits...

If you get enough sleep in a dark place at a regular time then this isn't going to be an issue. If you do shift work, then the well lit part of your workplace will help you to adjust to your new schedule as it controls your hormone levels of melatonin and the like. But changing your schedule is stressful for your body, so doing it all the time like in shift work is difficult.

but you certainly don't want to work in the dark! You NEED a day/night cycle for your hormone cycles to work properly in the first place.