Sitting 12 Hours a Day? Doctors Say Corporate Lifestyles May Be Fueling Cancer

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34-year-old marketing manager from Gurugram visited my clinic last year. His own definition fitted him? No cigarettes, some alcohol, cricket on the weekends. They even gave him a standing desk at his company. He dismissed his fatigue and a gradual, subtle change in his bowel habits for 8 months, thinking both were caused by the stress of his irregular and unhealthy diet. After we uncloaked the curtains, we revealed Stage III colorectal cancer. He was not unlucky; cancer is a progressive outcome for millions of Indians in our country, and in some ways, he was winning.Also read: PCOD and Heart Disease: The Dangerous Link Many Young Women Ignore

The desk is not as safe as it looks

An office job certainly does not cause cancer. But the modern work lifestyle? Chronic stress and poor nutrition, sleep deprivation, and socially active substance use? Relaxing in the office? It is a thesis of new-age sedentary jobs, and we can safely say it is right. To some degree, modern corporate lifestyles permit cancer. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute published a groundbreaking study linking sedentary lifestyles to increased risk of colorectal, endometrial, and lung cancers. It does not matter if you go to the gym for an hour every day if you sit for ten hours. This is the "Active Couch Potato Syndrome" and its impact on India's urban desk workforce, where 12-14 hours of a sedentary lifestyle is the average.

Obesity: An Unseen Cancer Crisis

There is a silent epidemic of obesity in India. National Family Health Survey data specify that approximately 40 per cent of women and 34 per cent of men in urban India are overweight or obese. Many are not fully aware, however, that body fat is not metabolically inactive. It synthesizes and secretes estrogen, insulin-like growth factor, and several pro-inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-alpha and IL-6. This chronic, subtle inflammatory state is mechanistically associated with at least 13 malignancies, namely breast, colon, endometrial, pancreatic, liver, renal, and gallbladder. World Health Organization data conclude that excessive body weight is responsible for approximately 4 to 8 per cent of all cancers in the world. The fact that the obesity rate is statistically the highest among the 25 to 45 year old age range and the fact that this age range includes India's corporate class means that this is a current, not a future issue.

Chronic Stress and the Resulting Immunological Impact

Stress is not the direct cause of the creation of cancerous cells. However, its lingering effects should not be neglected. The stress hormone cortisol dampens the activity of the immune system's natural killer cells, which primarily target early neoplastic cells. Employees who are chronically pressured by time, financial stress, and performance pressure operate with a biologically partially suppressed immune surveillance system. On top of causing problems in the immune system, chronic stress also leads to many carcinogenic behaviors. These include smoking, increased alcohol consumption, disrupted sleep, and overeating. In my experience, many patients who are diagnosed with cancers related to their lifestyles have also been exposed to high levels of unmanaged occupational stress for many continuous years before their diagnoses.

The Circadian Disruption Nobody Is Measuring

In the modern world of work, late-night calls with colleagues in different time zones, working late in the office and at home, and exposure to artificial blue light are all part and parcel of working. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified night shift work as a probably carcinogenic activity primarily due to the effect it has on melatonin secretion and Circadian Disruption. Melatonin is not just a sleep hormone; it has been shown to inhibit cancer, particularly hormone-sensitive cancers. The negative effects of chronic sleep deprivation, especially losing sleep for one night, are also well studied, even for professionals who don't work night shifts. These include impaired DNA repair mechanisms, increased markers of inflammation, and dysregulation of hormonal systems. These changes are not small and are occurring every night to millions of professionals in India.

What is the corporate world consuming, and what are the consequences?

What do Indian offices have in store? Energy bars and vending foods, coffee, subbing lunch, meals, and snacks ordered through the Biriyani delivery service? The modern office food system is quite literally cancerous. Researchers using the NOVA system discovered that the ultra-processed foods common in most offices today increase the likelihood of suffering from upper and lower digestive system and breast cancers. A study of 100,000 adults in France discovered that there is a 12 per cent increase in cancer diagnoses for every 10 per cent increase in consumption of ultra-processed foods. The same social networking habits that have long promoted the drinking of alcohol and sharing of cigarettes continue to plague the modern office. Vaping, perceived to be a safe alternative, is not a safe alternative. The long-term effects of cancer that are expected from vaping are still a pending outcome.

The symptoms corporate people overlook

Let me be clear - these signs can only be treated with medical intervention, not wishful thinking or over-the-counter medications or a quick search on the internet, if they persist for 2 or 3 weeks.

• Unexplained loss of 4 to 5 kg in body weight; persistent fatigue not resolved by resting.
• Change in bowel or bladder habits.
• Blood present in the stool, urine, or sputum.
• Is there a lump in your neck, breast, armpit, or groin?
• Do your oral ulcers not heal?
• Do you have a persistent cough or change in voice?
• Do you experience bloating in the abdomen repeatedly for unknown reasons?

The 34-year-old man I spoke about earlier experienced multiple warning signs for months leading up to his diagnosis.

What can be changed (versus how to)

Isn't prevention about being perfect? Rather, it should be based on consistency and evidence-based decision-making.

• Move your body throughout the day; not just when working out (set a timer every 45 minutes to get up and walk around).
• Protect your sleep the same way you protect a client's deadline; your body needs at least 7 hours of sleep to be healthy and function properly.
• Limit your consumption of ultra-processed foods and increase the amount of fiber in your diet; both have been shown to provide a protective effect against colorectal cancer.
• Do you know your numbers? Each year, you should have your BMI, blood glucose, and inflammatory markers (ie, CRP) checked.
• Don't normalize heavy alcohol and tobacco use in the workplace.
• Talk to your doctor about your family's history if any of your first-degree relatives were diagnosed with cancer before they turned 50.

India's corporate wellness initiatives primarily scratch the surface. Programs like yoga classes and step-count challenges don't actually address the deeper, systemic issues affecting occupational health. Real reform of occupational health should recognize the importance of employee health as an enabler of productivity and a public health necessity, rather than simply a checkbox in the benefits package. India's workforce is India's most valuable resource, but even valuable resources require regular maintenance. The ever-increasing incidence of lifestyle-related cancers among working-age Indians is a warning that we are using an unsustainable model of professional life, and it is extracting a biological cost that will eventually show up in hospitals, as lost productivity, and as lives lost prematurely. If we construct success on a failing body, that success will be anything but sustainable. In the field of oncology, when do we see the results of this predicament? Often, it is unaffordable to pay for it!