(28-02-11) Lack of sleep greatly raises the risk for colon cancer

by Sherry Baker, Health Sciences Editor


(NaturalNews) (NaturalNews) Colon cancer is the third leading cause of death
in the US. But this potentially deadly disease doesn't just strike out of the
blue -- for the most part, it can be prevented in the first place with healthy
lifestyle choices. As NaturalNews has covered extensively, strategies like
regular exercise, eating a high fiber diet, and taking omega-3s can greatly
lower your chance of ever having a colon malignancy. And now comes word of yet
another natural way to zap the risk of colon cancer -- just get enough sleep.

That's right. Simply getting enough restful shut-eye, it turns out, is a
powerful way to prevent colon cancer.

Sleep is part of a healthy, natural lifestyle that is too often ignored. And
that can be dangerous to your health. A lack of sleep has previously been
linked to heightened risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and
death from all causes. New ground-breaking research just published in the
journal Cancer by researchers from University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical
Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine found people who
get less than six hours of sleep at night had an almost 50 percent increase in
the risk of colorectal adenomas compared with individuals sleeping at least
seven hours per night. Adenomas are precancerous polyps that, left untreated,
can turn malignant.

"To our knowledge, this is the first study to report a significant association
of sleep duration and colorectal adenomas," Li Li, MD, PhD, the study's
principal investigator and Associate Professor of Family Medicine, Epidemiology
and Biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, said
in a statement to the media. "A short amount of sleep can now be viewed as a
new risk factor for the development of the development of colon cancer."

Research participants were surveyed by phone before undergoing scheduled
colonoscopies at UH Case Medical Center. They were asked for demographic
information and questioned about their overall sleep quality during the past
month, using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The PSQI asks questions
such as how frequently a person has trouble sleeping and how many hours a night
a person sleeps.

Out of the 1,240 patients in the study, 338 had colorectal adenomas discovered
at their colonoscopies. And the people with the precancerous polyps were found
in general to have reported sleeping less than six hours compared to those
patients without adenomas. This association between less sleep and adenomas
remained even when adjustments were made for family history, smoking, and
obesity.

Dr Li notes that the dramatic increase in risk due to less hours of sleep is
comparable to the risk associated with having a first-degree relative who has
had colon cancer, as well as with the colon cancer risk of eating a lot of red
meat. "Short sleep duration is a public health hazard leading not only to
obesity, diabetes and coronary heart disease, but also, as we now have shown in
this study, colon adenomas," Dr. Li concluded. "Effective intervention to
increase duration of sleep and improve quality of sleep could be an under-
appreciated avenue for prevention of colorectal cancer."

For more information:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...
http://www.naturalnews.com/colon_ca...

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In evidenza

"L'informazione presente nel sito serve a migliorare, e non a sostituire, il rapporto medico-paziente."

Per coloro che hanno problemi di salute si consiglia di consultare sempre il proprio medico curante.