Stress & Cancer

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  • Merilee
    Merilee Member Posts: 3,047
    edited May 2011

    Stress is definitely a factor for me. I am seriously considering a career change because of it.

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  • elmcity69
    elmcity69 Member Posts: 998
    edited May 2011

    if the theory holds water: then every human being should have cancer. period.

    tsunami victims. child soldiers. parents of children with cancer. husbands of women with cancer. wives of men with cancer. anyone who loses a house/spouse/child/job. anyone with a toxic childhood/marriage/work environment.

    stress is a fact of living. it can hurt us, no doubt about that. but there are just TOO MANY amazing, centered, calm people living with, or dying from, CANCER to believe this theory.

    gene mutations also  play a role.

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  • asschercut
    asschercut Member Posts: 159
    edited May 2011

    I believe that stress is a contributing factor to "some" cancers - definitely mine.

    Many people smoke but not all will develop emphysema...and many people sunbake...but not all will develop a malignant growth. An elderly gent and neighbour is still smoking at 80, and going strong. And yet a friend of my MIL died of emphysema at age 36 from smoking. Different substances/ stresses in life will affect us all in different ways.

    Some advice I did get from my onc and BS was to eat healthy, keep a healthy weight and to not stress about anything - Which I kind of already figured.   

    Victoria

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  • Sandeeonherown
    Sandeeonherown Member Posts: 1,946
    edited June 2011

    Yep...while I don't think stress caused my cancer, it may have brought it to the surface. My life-partner of 16 years left 10 months before I was diagnosed...it was not a complete break and I continued to have hope....bu I cried every day, was incredibly stuck, depressed and heart broken. When I was diagnosed, it made perfect sense to me that it was my left side...my symbolic heart side since I was heart broken....if that message was not strong enough, I had a heart attack 9 months following that (ostensibly caused by a blood clot they suspect may have been triggered by tamoxifen)...ok...message received! I have got the message!!!!...then again, this may all be random and coincidence....I do know that stdudies say cancer takes a number of years to grow...maybe it was simply lying dormant waiting for me to stop being so sunshiney and positive....damn!

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  • asschercut
    asschercut Member Posts: 159
    edited June 2011

    That's very touching Susan. All the best...x

    I knew my bloomin cancer had arrived and I was in denial. I felt a tiny hard lump...and kept postponing my visit to the doctors. First it was the school holidays...then a long weekend...then someone's birthday....one excuse after the other. While doing some research I had read that the tumour will double in size about every 2-3 months. And about ten weeks of avoiding the doctor...it did indeed double in size. I hit the skids pretty quickly after that, and was diagnosed with invasive cancer.

    Five years prior to that I had ADH...so my cells were only mutating at that point. And they were mutating near my chest wall. My BS said that I was in the high risk category, and could likely develope BC in five years' time...and I did. I developed a cancerous tumour on my chest wall. I had some very stressful times over those five years. Not anymore...I'm in a really good place, and I plan on keeping it that way.

    Victoria

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  • PLJ
    PLJ Member Posts: 373
    edited February 2012

    Hi all,

    I believe stress was the catalyst for me, too. (The trigger is different for everyone.) My big stress set in over a decade ago and included a chronic illness in a child. I am very high strung and noticed over the years that I would experience stress associated pain in the exact place where I found the mass in my breast. Coincidence? I think not. I should have sought better strategies, any strategies, to deal with my stress but was always too busy. I am only 40, perimenopausal, active, fit, eat organic foods but did not deal with my huge stress load well at all.

    I have been misdiagnosed with a benign fibroadenoma for the past year...soooo angry about that but am enjoying the effects of Reiki and networking to release that stress. Full final path report from bmx to come tomorrow. Hopefully it will remain unchanged from my segmental resection. If not, I will just have to roll with it. I have had the honour of meeting several stage IV survivors who have been NED for decades. Their common thread seemed to be some form of active stress management and they have all made a point of sharing this with me. May they and all of you live long, happy and healthy lives!

    In the spirit of sisterhood,

    PJ

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