Researchers Say Sleep Can Prevent Prostate Cancer

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health say that more sleep can help reduce the chance of developing prostate cancer as much as 75-percent.

The research, presented recently at the American Association for Cancer Research Prostate Cancer Foundation Conference on Advances in Prostate Cancer Research, was a five-year study on about 930 Icelandic men.  Iceland was chosen due to the high variability of sun and dark that occurs naturally though a year.

The participant’s melatonin levels were measured, and the participants also reported their sleep experiences and the drugs they normally took for health reasons.  Twelve percent of the participants were diagnosed with prostate cancer during the period of the study. Fourteen percent of the men reported trouble falling asleep, 20 percent of the men had problems staying asleep, and 33 percent used sleeping medications.

The researchers said their study found that getting enough sleep without taking a sleep medication produces a 31-percent lower chance of having prostate cancer.

Source: Examiner.com