Anyone have disruptions in sleep habits prior to TN diagnosis?
A few years after my first diagnosis of TN BC, while doing a research proposal involving circadian rhythms, I came across a study in the medical journal, The Lancet. It detailed a high rate of breast cancer in Finnish female flight attendants. What the data suggested was that disturbances in biological rhythms and melatonin are involved in breast cancer. It really struck a cord with me, because I am a rigid morning person, who doesn't do well if I can't maintain my regular sleep routine.
And, I suddenly realized that, for at least 8 months before the lump appeared on my mammogram (which I put off having biopsied due to a rigorous travel schedule), I was not only traveling back and forth across time zones constantly, but I couldn't sleep well at home. My upstairs neighbors were keeping their dogs in the bedroom at night so they wouldn't disturb their new baby. Plus the next door neighbor put in a really bright motion-activated light over his back door that flashed on and off into my bedroom window all night. It was a convergence of things that left me sleep deprived for almost a year.
I woke up the other morning (13 years later) and realized that I have been traveling for months at a time again this year, with no break in between. I was absolutely shocked to get a repeat diagnosis for TN bc in the opposite breast after all these years. Like so many of you, I don't fit the usual demographics (66-yr-old Caucasian woman with no history of any kind of cancer on either side of my family, all of whom have lived well into their 80's). This is the first year since 1999 when I had my first diagnosis that I have traveled across so many time zones and had so many months of sleep routine interruption.
My son died four years ago of ALS. Like that disease, I realize that there are many triggers for TN bc and that they are all individual to our genetic codes. No one knows what triggers ALS for a healthy, vibrant 37 year old man. But just as that disease is on the rise, so it seems that TN bc is increasing. To me it is just common sense that there are environmental triggers and personal habit triggers that didn't exist 50 years ago. I certainly think that light pollution, noise pollution, and any number of the triggers people have mentioned here are worth exploring.
I'd love to hear if anyone else experienced disruptions in their circadian rhythms prior to their diagnosis. (Sorry for the long post).
Comments
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Hi Linda,
After reading you post, I agree to some extent, that environment contributes to the execution of presenting with TN. However, in my case, being BRAC 1+, the odds were significantly higher...bringing me to ask if you had been tested for the gene as BRCA+ can develop a new primary at any time, and in same or contra lateral breast.
But being that TN is considered metalabolic in nature, and a culmulation of various diseases and subtypes, I do think something environmental may set off the trigger of events causing the mutation to ignite.
I. Am so sorry to read about your son. I am so sorry you have to endure this disease again as well. My thoughts and heartfelt prayers are being sent your way.
Gentile Hugs....
Lisa -
Hi Linda,
I have experienced disruptions in sleeping habits for few years prior to TN diagnosis. Four years ago I started having a new business; apartment for rent. When my building construction was finished, I moved in a room to stay there. I have been working full time as a banker and being an apartment for rent owner after bank hour. I had been disrupted sleeping at night often by some customers who came back their room after midnight. Noise made me wake up. I couldn't sleep well. During treatment I decided to moved in to another place to get full rest.
At the hospital while my chemo treatment period, I talked to a TN bc lady, who experienced similar disrupted-sleeping situation for years, that she also thought sleeping problem was a trigger.
I'm not sure if this might be a trigger for TN bc. Anyway, this issue was interesting.
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I think sleep disruptions are very common among menopausal women, which just happens to be the age at which our cancer risk rises too. Is there a causal relationship? Is there a direct connection? Hard to say without clinical research.
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We had a neighbours dog that barked incessantly near my bedroom window throughout the night which disrupted my sleep for several years. I often wondered what the sleep deprivation was doing to my health as I was already stressed due to other factors going on.
I also used to keep a light on in the bathroom for the kids in case they wanted to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. This became a habit and continued after they grew older and I finally have it off after being diagnosed due to the whole light/sleep thing.
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