The perils of night shift!

Dr Yousuf Ali al Mulla -

The body clock regulates our daily cycles as we transition from day to night, and from wakefulness to sleep. During this period of time, different body processes such as hormone production, metabolism and blood pressure take place simultaneously.

In today’s world, women work in different places and hold various positions, but also have to work in different shift including the night.

Unfortunately, the body clock is very difficult to be reset because it is tightly aligned with the rising and setting of the sun. Hence, women who work off the normal schedule of time are not getting the quantity or quality of sleep they need to keep them healthy.

Here I have the case study of a woman who does regular night shifts and the consecutive diseases that could develop over the period of time in such cases.

Many studies sought to determine if working in the night shift disrupted melatonin levels causing an increase in the risk for developing breast cancer and that for instance, support the theory that shift work, even more so often deprives sleep.

This may be an important risk factor for the development of depression, breast and other cancers, which in turn affects not only the children, but the family as a whole.

When I did another research, I found a link between sleep and both obesity and diabetes. So, here comes the question as to whether we really realized the impact of shift work and erratic sleep schedule on our health, especially women.

A research from University of Surrey (UK), has suggested that women may be more affected by night shift work than men, knowing that the women performed less well during the early morning, which would be around the time a night shift worker comes off a night shift.

Moreover, in our life we do observe the significant implications for women who work night shifts in professions such as nursing and in the police department.

The researchers for example, focused on female nurses who work night shifts and the risk for six different forms of cancer. The findings showed these nurses had a 58 per cent higher risk of breast cancer — a greater increase than any other job included in such study.

In the medical profession, all the staff are bound to do more intensive night shift duties in accordance with the requirements.

However, I personally would not rash to the results what some studies have suggested, as it is possible that women in these locations have higher sex hormone levels, which have been positively associated with hormone-related cancers such as breast cancer, but I agree and urges the need for health protection programs for long-term female night-shift workers, with possible development of heart disease and cancers.

Finally, I hope that with increased understanding of how these are related will provide better preventative care and more effective treatment programmes towards the women who can be our mothers, sisters, wives and even the Mammas.

Dr Yousuf Ali Almulla, MD, Ministry of Health. He is a medical innovator and educator. For any queries regarding the content of the column, he can be contacted at: dryusufalmulla@gmail.com