How meal times and light exposure affects cancer risk

When the timing of meals was assessed to see if it affected the risk for breast and prostate cancer, something interesting was found.

The research was carried out between 2008 and 2013 in Spain (Kogevinas M, et.al., 2018). Included in the study was 621 cases of prostate cancer and 1205 cases of breast cancer compared with controls.

When participants sleeping immediately after dinner were compared to those sleeping 2 or more hours after dinner, the ones waiting 2 or more hours after dinner before they went to sleep had a 20% reduction in cancer risk for breast and prostate cancer combined.

A similar protection was observed in subjects having dinner before 9 pm compared with those having dinner after 10 pm. Not only does the food we eat affect cancer risk, but how late we eat and how long we wait before we go to bed after the last meal are all factors associated with cancer risk.

How does light exposer during the night affect cancer risk? Exposure to outdoor light in the blue spectrum during the night was associated with breast cancer when comparing the highest versus the lowest tertile (Garcia-Saenz A, et.al., 2018).

Men who slept in “quite illuminated” bedrooms had a higher risk of prostate cancer than men who slept in total darkness.

These are factors most of us can easily control.

References

Kogevinas M, Espinosa A, Castelló A, Gómez-Acebo I, Guevara M, Martin V, Amiano P, Alguacil J, Peiro R, Moreno V, Costas L, Fernández-Tardón G, Jimenez JJ, Marcos-Gragera R, Perez-Gomez B, Llorca J, Moreno-Iribas C, Fernández-Villa T, Oribe M, Aragones N, Papantoniou K, Pollán M4, Castano-Vinyals G, Romaguera
D. Effect of mistimed eating patterns on breast and prostate cancer risk (MCCSpain Study). Int J Cancer. 2018 Jul 17.

Garcia-Saenz A, Sánchez de Miguel A, Espinosa A, Valentin A, Aragonés N, Llorca J, Amiano P, Martín Sánchez V, Guevara M, Capelo R, Tardón A, Peiró-Perez R, Jiménez-Moleón JJ, Roca-Barceló A, Pérez-Gómez B, Dierssen-Sotos T, FernándezVilla T, Moreno-Iribas C, Moreno V, García-Pérez J, Castaño-Vinyals G, Pollán M, Aubé M, Kogevinas M, Evaluating the Association between Artificial Light-at-Night Exposure and Breast and Prostate Cancer Risk in Spain (MCC-Spain Study). Environ Health Perspect. 2018 Apr 23;126(4):047011.

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