It's long been common medical knowledge that an increase in physical activity can help prevent people from getting cancer. A recent study, though, has found something new: that the cancer preventative effect of exercise can be undermined by insufficient sleep. The study, conducted by a team of researchers led by Dr. James McClain, cancer prevention fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, tracked women aged 65 or younger over the course of nearly a decade. It found a 1.5-fold increase in overall cancer risk for women who were physically active, but who had insufficient sleep (fewer than 7 hours a night).

Although the study did not look at Sleep Apnea and cancer, the logic of the study suggests heightened cancer risk for those of us with untreated Sleep Apnea.