Psychological stress is defined as physiological and emotional reactions experienced by a person who is dealing with a situation that pushes them outside of their coping resources. For example, relationship issues, financial difficulties and health concerns are all common causes of stress. When you have stress, the body responds by boosting the levels of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Though these bodily hormones enable you to cope much better with stress, they also increase the level of blood pressure, heartbeat and blood sugar levels. Therefore, sustained stress levels play a role in diabetes, heart diseases, and many other health issues. Stress also activates detrimental habits like drinking, eating too much and alcohol and drug abuses. These habits raise your chance of certain types of cancer and worsen the prognosis. There are strong links between cancer and stress and I mention a few of them in this article.
Most scientific studies haven’t looked for a direct connection, but alternatively an indirect connection in between stress and an elevated risk of most cancers. One example is, stress was associated with viral infections which are related to cancers. Kaposi sarcoma is an example of a cancer that triggers areas of abnormal tissue to develop underneath the skin, within the lining of the mouth, nose area, and throat or even in other areas including some lymphomas.
Newer reports say that these stress hormones may directly affect some cellular components active in the production of malignant cells and cell development. Stress has also been found to have an impact on tumor development and spread, even though the precise mechanism is unidentified.
Anxiety also strips the body of vitamin C along with other nutrients that keep the body’s defense mechanism healthy. It ought to be mentioned that stress modifies the pH of your body by causing it to be a lot more acidic, thus developing a beneficial breeding ground for cancer development.
Some medical professionals usually do not continue with the research that assesses the links involving stress and cancer simply because they believe that it is obvious, if stress decreases the body’s capacity to fight disease and also depletes the body’s defense mechanisms, then natural stress may affect the immune system’s capacity to kill cancer cells as well.
Stress and Cancer of the Breast
Childhood struggles are related with greater psychological and biological levels of sensitivity to stress and as I have outlined above stress has a direct and unfavorable effect on the immune system. To further assert this information, a study presented in July 2012 “Health Psychology” edition, assessed the consequences of childhood stress in a hundred and eight survivors of cancer of the breast. Scientists learned that those females who experienced much more childhood adversities, could possibly have made them more susceptible to defense mechanisms impairment throughout adulthood. Additionally, they experienced more depressive signs and symptoms, less training or schooling and poor sleep quality compared to those with much less childhood adversities.
However, mindfulness relaxation, a course designed to reduce stress, was discovered helpful to lessen the thoughts of stress and lower the particular “stress hormone” cortisol levels. This research involved 100 women identified as having breast cancers and mindful relaxation was practiced three hours per session, weekly for 8 weeks.
Stress and Cancer of the Skin
Because skin is regarded as the typical site of cancer, comprising almost 50% of total cancers in the United States, researchers assessed the risk involving stress and cancer of the skin. Highly anxious men and women showed diminished protective defenses and increased skin cancer progression, says a survey team from Stanford University in a 2012 study on PlosOne. This research was carried out in animal subjects and was focused primarily on squamous cell carcinoma.
Behavioral Oncology or Psycho-oncology
This is a relatively recent healthcare field which combines lifestyle, psychology and oncology. This area of expertise was designed to help cancer individuals to deal far better with their cancer diagnosis, considering it creates emotional and physical stress which has a negative impact within their treatment method and survival. Oncology health care providers, in particular, also have problems with physical and mental burdens and for that reason they need mental treatment and care. Based on Japanese researchers, cancer treatment needs to include both standard treatment along with human approach strategies from psycho-oncologists.
Besides emotional stress, we must take into account the physical stress attributable to a poor diet, toxins in the environment including radiation and an insufficient physical exercise regimen. Consider getting rid of both mental, along with physical stress, which includes mind-body approaches such as yoga, breathing, mindful meditation, tai chi, PR yoga, reducing your work related stress related and implementing healthy living.
References:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22746260
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22699165
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22421756
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/stress
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