Stress Increases Cancer Risk

Research shows a clear link between stress and cancer. While the jury is still out on whether stress can actually cause cancer, stress can impact whether cancer comes back in patients previously treated for cancer.

Cancer 101

When a patient is successfully treated for cancer, it doesn’t mean every potential cancer cell has been removed. There may still be a few isolated cells scattered around the body. On their own, those damaged cells are not usually a problem unless they can spread and harm nearby cells.
Cancer does its damage when groups of damaged cells form together, multiply and release toxins that damage nearly cells. Think of your lawn: if there’s one weed out there, it doesn’t do much harm. You may not even notice it. But if those weeds start to multiply, they spread and overrun the healthy grass.
Even healthy people may carry potential cancer cells. Some research suggests we all have isolated, damaged cells with the potential to be cancerous. The basic difference between healthy people and cancer patients is whether something triggers those individual cells to multiply.

How Stress Impacts Cancer

In a nutshell, when we’re stressed, our bodies release hormones. Those hormones trigger a process that can wake up cancer cells that were lying dormant in the patient. Research now shows higher stress hormone levels have been associated with cancer recurring sooner.

Throughout our lifetime, cells naturally divide and multiply for a period of time before dying off. Usually, those dead cells are removed by our immune systems. However stress, age, or diseases like cancer can cause our immune systems to become less efficient at the clean-up process, so some of those damaged cells stick around. Researchers call those lingering cells “senescent.” They’re not still dividing like our younger cells, but senescent cells are still active and can release harmful substances that damage nearby healthy cells.
Stress not only slows down the removal of dead cells, it can also stimulate those senescent, or damaged, cells to grow and multiply.
Stress triggers our immune response to look for and fight an invader, leading to increased white cells and inflammation. In normal circumstances, the white cells do their job, the immune system sweeps away the toxic molecules that form as a byproduct, and the inflammation subsides.
But stress keeps the body on heightened alert. When active for too long, molecules generated by stress hormones and inflammation can damage cell DNA – the directions that tell a cell how to behave. That leaves the door open for abnormal cell mutations like cancer to grow and multiply.

Results of the Research

Now that researchers understand the connection between stress and cancer, they’re looking for ways to use that information to stop cancer recurrence. Some scientists are looking for ways to boost the body’s clean-up system so the damaged cells can’t stick around and become cancer. Other teams are looking for ways to mitigate the amount of stress cancer patients feel.

In the meantime, cancer patients have a few tools they can employ.

• Manage stress. While the advice may seem obvious, the action is harder than the words.  The key is finding a solution that works for you. Meditation and deep breathing are recommended because nearly anyone can do them and they trigger the body’s relaxation response. Yoga does the same for those who want something more physical.
• Choose Healthy Food.  Eat a diet that focuses on anti-inflammatory foods and anti-oxidents (an essential part of the cleanup crew in the immune response.). Look for colorful frduit and vegetables, fresh fish, and whole grains. Steer clear of processed foods as much as possible; they not only contain unhealthy levels of sugar, fat, salt and chemicals, filling up on unhealthy foods reduces the appetite for healthy choices.
• Get regular exercise. In addition to helping boost feelings of well-being through endorphin release, regular exercise may boost natural antioxidants.

There aren’t always clear answers for why someone gets cancer or why it recurs. What is clear is that there’s a link between stress and cancer recovery; reducing stress can be beneficial to overall well-being and may fortify the body to resist or fight cancer.