Awhile back, a good friend of mine who is an airline pilot shared with me that despite the fact that pilots must pass routine and rigorous physicals, most live only about 10 years after retirement…and currently the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots is 60!
I've been interested ever since in why a demographic of individuals who meet our current definition of"healthy" may not necessarily be so. My ulterior motive, of course, is to keep my friend around as long as possible, but in the process of studying about sleep and health, I continue to find some really interesting things relevant to PCOS.
Such as the relationship between shift work and breast cancer. The connection here is that women with PCOS are more prone to cancer in estrogen-sensitive tissues.
Researchers have known for a long time that women who work shift jobs, such as nurses, are more prone to breast cancer. Now, research is emerging to suggest that melatonin physically suppresses the growth of breast cancer cells. Melatonin exerts its effect in numerous ways, from suppressing receptor genes, reducing the activity of proteins that regulate tumor growth, changing genes, inhibiting cell reproduction. The study I'm referring to in this post literally referred to melatonin as an"antiestrogenic" compound.
So 'splain me something, Lucy. Why is it, when I go to the Susan Komen Race for the Cure website…that the keywords"sleep" and"shift work" bring up nothing? Seems to me that the Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk would be more relevant…and preventive to those who participate…if it was a Breast Cancer 3 Day Slumber Party!
Srinivasan V, Spence DW, Pandi-Perumal SR, Trakht I, Esquifino AI, Cardinali DP, Maestroni GJ. Melatonin, environmental light, and breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2008 Apr;108(3):339-50.