Possible cause of CLL

[Waterskier]

I think that mine was caused from my nearly 3 million miles of air travel, almost always seated at the window. I traveled for business coast-to-coast every week and some internationally also. Exposure to all of that radiation was something I hadn't realized might eventually cause something like CLL.

[SofiaDeo]

My understanding is that UV rays from the sun certainly cause skin cancers. Pilots and flight attendants have about twice the risk for melanomas, but IDK about pilots having increased cancers other than skin. And it seems overseas flights expose one to more ionizing radiation than intercontinental.

There are so many things, it seems, that can cause oxidative stress in our bodies and break DNA to where it needs repair.

[AussieNeil Administrator in reply to SofiaDeo]

The higher altitude puts passengers and air crew at higher risk of cosmic ray radiation, just as living at higher altitudes also increases the risk. (While planes mostly fly much higher than where people live at high altitudes , those living at higher altitudes are of course exposed to the increased radiation all the time.). CT scan radiation is often compared to what time would be required in air travel to get an equivalent amount of exposure.

This article puts the risk into perspective and surprisingly, it's lower than I expected:

theconversation.com/air-tra...

The above article calculates an additional risk of 0.5% of deleloping cancer for a record holding frequent flyer, compared to their otherwise risk of about 25%. His risk from fluting was also higher than that of the flight crew.

The recent post with many more replies on likely causes of CLL seems to have been deleted by the poster, or I'd link it here.

Neil

[Smith123456]

no

[HopeME]

Waterskier: Could it have been the activity associated with a job that requires constant travel? Such as a sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and high levels of stress? I’m making assumptions here but I think they are realistic.

Best

Mark

[Waterskier in reply to HopeME]

Hi Mark, I think you are on target there as well. My overall health has definitely improved since the pandemic work-from-home lockdown. I've really enjoyed my career, but I'm getting close to retiring from all of this craziness!

[HopeME in reply to Waterskier]

You and me both 😁

[DanBro1]

Totally agree!! I am retired now, but I travelled by air every week when I was working. Sedentary lifestyle, bad diet (could eat anywhere I wanted but chose fast food to take back to my room and watch TV), and stress, for sure! After I retired, my health improved greatly...... until CLL raised its ugly head.