If you watch the CBS Nightly News, you’ve heard Katie Couric talk about the dangers of colon cancer and the need for early screening. Earlier this month, Couric along with New York City health officials launched a campaign called “Make That Call” to raise awareness about the disease and the need to make a doctor’s appointment to be screened.
According to the American Cancer Society, over 141,000 people will be diagnosed with colon cancer in 2011 and nearly 50,000 will die of the disease in the United States. Colon cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in both men and women and it’s the third leading cause of cancer death. The key to prevention is a screening test.
How is colon cancer connected to sleep?
Well, in a new study recently published in the journal Cancer, researchers found that people who average less than 6 hours of sleep at night had an almost 50% increase in the risk of developing colon adenomas—which are the precursor to cancerous tumors—as compared with folks who get at least 7 hours of sleep per night. They don’t yet know why fewer hours of sleep may lead to colon cancer.
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