Approved Research

Lifestyles, sex hormones and common diseases: an investigation in the UK Biobank

Lay summary

The relationships between lifestyles, sex hormones, and common diseases are quite complicated. Healthy lifestyles are associated with a longer life expectancy while unhealthy lifestyles increase the risk of many diseases. Sex difference is very common in the occurrence of many tumors. For instance, the incidence of papillary thyroid carcinoma in women is significantly higher than that in men and the female-to-male ratio is about three or more. We therefore hypothesized that sex hormones may play a role on it. Previous studies found that serum estradiol was positively associated with the risk of breast cancer among premenopausal women while serum testosterone was positively associated with the risk of prostate cancer. Our study aims to investigate the complex relationships between lifestyles, sex hormones, and common diseases (e.g., metabolic syndrome, thyroid diseases, osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases, mood disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancers).This project will last for 36 months. Findings from this research may help to clarify the relationships between lifestyles, sex hormones, and common diseases, and pave a way for future preventive strategies for common diseases.