2024-08-05 09:18:17
This element of body decoration is becoming more and more popular in Lithuania as well. Take a walk in the center of Vilnius or Kaunas on a hot day and you will see that a frequent passer-by has a tattoo.
According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, nearly one-third of US adults have a tattoo, with women between the ages of 18 and 49 particularly active. In the last 20 years, this number has increased dramatically: in 2012 about 21% had at least one tattoo. of the adult US population, and in 2003 – 16 percent
These people must have been alarmed if they heard the recent news that tattoos can cause blood cancer – lymphoma.
Why are researchers investigating the possible link between tattoos and lymphoma?
Lymphoma is a type of cancer that begins in the lymphatic system, a network of blood vessels and lymph nodes located throughout the body. Lymphoma is one of the most common types of cancer.
Risk factors for lymphoma include:
– older age;
– certain infections (such as Epstein-Barr virus, HIV and hepatitis C);
– exposure to certain chemicals (eg benzene or pesticides);
– cases of illness in the family;
– exposure to radiation;
– impaired immune system;
– certain immune diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren’s disease or celiac disease).
Tattoos are not known to cause or be a risk factor for lymphoma. However, there are a few reasons to wonder if it’s unrelated:
– Ink injected under the skin to create a tattoo contains several chemicals classified as carcinogenic;
– Tattoo ink pigment can be found in enlarged lymph nodes several weeks after the tattoo;
– Immune cells in the skin can react to the chemicals in the tattoo ink and travel to nearby lymph nodes, triggering an immune response throughout the body;
– Other causes of lymphoma, such as pesticides, have a similar effect on the immune cells of the lymph nodes.
Is there a link between tattoos and lymphoma?
The possible link between tattoos and lymphoma is not well-studied. Shmerling says he found only two published studies that looked at this possibility, and neither found conclusive evidence of a link.
The first study compared 737 people with the most common lymphomas (non-Hodgkin) with similar people who did not have lymphoma. The researchers did not find that the frequency of tattoos was significantly different between the two groups.
in 2024 May. the published study—the one that instilled a lot of fear—was larger in scope. It compared 1,398 participants aged 20 to 60 who had lymphoma with 4,193 people who did not have lymphoma but were similar in other ways.
During the investigation, it was found that:
– lymphoma was 21% among people with tattoos. more frequent;
– the risk of lymphoma differed depending on how long it had been since the tattoo was done:
within two years, the risk of lymphoma was 81 percent. bigger;
between the ages of three and ten, the risk of lymphoma definitely increased;
11 years or more after getting a tattoo, the risk of lymphoma was 19 percent. bigger.
No association was observed between the size or number of tattoos and the risk of lymphoma.
However, R.Shmerling urges to evaluate the results of the study with caution:
“Importantly, almost all of the differences in lymphoma between tattooed and non-tattooed individuals were not statistically significant. This means that the established link between lymphoma and tattoos is questionable and very likely observed by chance.
Furthermore, if tattoos significantly increase the risk of developing lymphoma, one would expect that the incidence of the disease in the United States would increase along with the popularity of tattoos. However, this is not the case”, observed R.Shmerling.
Do tattoos pose other health risks?
Although complications from reputable and properly certified tattoo artists are few, tattoos do pose health risks:
– infections, including bacterial skin infections or viral hepatitis
– allergic reactions to paint
– formation of scars
– in rare cases – skin cancer (melanoma and other types of skin cancer).
Parengta pagal „Health.harvard.edu“ inf.
2024-08-05 09:18:17