I never quite understood why, but Cancer Research UK says that there are no links between stress and cancer. And they have been saying this for as long as I can remember.
Indeed on their current website they say this:
Everyone feels stressed at some point in their lives and that's completely normal.
Most scientific studies have found that stress does not increase the risk of cancer.
Some individual studies have suggested that stress can cause cancer, particularly breast cancer. But overall the evidence for this has been poor.
So basically, the entire staff of the Stress Management Laboratory at UCLA can pack up their worry beads and go home. The unit specializes in cancer and talks of Stress Management being one of the most ignored areas of cancer treatment (well it would be, wouldn’t it, if you believe Cancer Research?).
Indeed, UCLA scientists say that cancer patients who actively manage their stress survive significantly longer, and I’m sure they have done a fair bit of research over their 15 years of existence.
They talk of counselling, a colourful Mediterranean Diet, fish oils, yoga and meditation as being the 5 main therapies for reducing this imaginary cause of cancer. Not a drug amongst the therapies, you will note.
Back in 1982, John Vane won a Nobel Prize and a Knighthood for discovering that turning on an enzyme called COX-2, which is present in the nuclear envelope of every cell in your body, could cause the production of highly inflammatory hormones called eicosanoids. And these cause inflammation throughout the body. Inflammation is the
precursor to Chronic Illnesses like cancer; and inflammation helps cancer spread. Vane told us that stress in the shape of cortisol and adrenalin could turn on COX-2.
We also know from the Human Microbiome Project that stress is a disrupter of the gut microbiome because it alters the pH of the gut, prevents the good bacteria growing and multiplying at the right rate and so encouraging the pathogens and all their toxins to come out to play. And toxins cause cancer via free-radical production.
I could go on, but you’d get bored.
According to Cancer Research UK, a meta-analysis of 100,000 people confirms stress doesn’t increase cancer risk! (a meta-analysis? 100,000 people? LOL) What we didn’t bargain for is this. Stress can lead you into bad habits:
This evidence tells us that stress itself doesn’t cause cancer. But stressful situations can sometimes lead us to develop unhealthy habits, such as smoking, overeating or heavy drinking.
So, yet again, cancer is your own fault says CRUK (fret not, they have the drugs to save you). It’s pseudo-science twaddle like this that makes me stressed.
Go to: Stress Management aids cancer survival