General Category > Health/Education

Possible link between tattoos and lymphoma revealed in new study

(1/3) > >>

mountaineer:
Possible link between tattoos and lymphoma revealed in new study
By Tracy Swartz
Published May 26, 2024, 6:48 p.m. ET

A new study out of Sweden finds that people with tattoos have a 21% higher risk of developing lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.

“It is important to remember that lymphoma is a rare disease and that our results apply at the group level,” Lund University researcher Christel Nielsen, who led the study, said in a statement last week. “The results now need to be verified and investigated further in other studies, and such research is ongoing."

 ... For the study, published in eClinicalMedicine, 11,905 participants were directed to answer a questionnaire about lifestyle factors to determine if they were tattooed. The risk associated with tattoo exposure appears to be highest for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (a fast-growing curable cancer that starts in white blood cells) and follicular lymphoma (a slow-growing incurable cancer).

“We already know that when the tattoo ink is injected into the skin, the body interprets this as something foreign that should not be there, and the immune system is activated,” Nielsen explained. “A large part of the ink is transported away from the skin, to the lymph nodes where it is deposited.”... https://nypost.com/2024/05/26/lifestyle/possible-link-between-tattoos-lymphoma-revealed-in-new-study/

Timber Rattler:
Well, yeah, anytime somebody injects foreign material into their body increases their cancer risk.  Duh!

the OlLine Rebel:
Good.  Perhaps we can eradicate tattoos the way all the NAZIs deleted tobacco smoking (but not marijuana).

Smokin Joe:
Tattoos often imply other lifestyle elements that might lead to exposure to chemicals that might be contributory to lymphoma, from military service, blue collar work environments, or other behaviour patterns. This is a 21% increase, meaning some people with tattoos have these additional exposures or some response to the tattoo itself (ink, depth of penetration, etc). Tattoos only go through the epidermis into the top of the dermal layer (1-2 mm in).

While not limited to specific personality types, folks who tend to get tattoos may have other exposures to lymphoma inducing substances that are not directly attributable to the tattoos, themselves. This seems to bee more correlation than causation to me.

the OlLine Rebel:
You can’t deny it is “unnatural” to stick stuff into your body for fun, into the skin. As surely as it is unnatural to inhale stuff into lungs.  None of this can be good.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page