They say that stress triggers cancer

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  • MountainMia
    MountainMia Member Posts: 1,307
    edited April 2019

    pupmom, that's exactly like blaming disease on people who don't pray the "right" way. If you aren't earnest enough or say the right words or pray to the right gods, or pray often enough or in the right places or with the right accessories, you will get sick and won't get better. Rubbish.

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  • marijen
    marijen Member Posts: 3,731
    edited April 2019

    How chronic stress boosts cancer cell growth


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  • MelissaDallas
    MelissaDallas Member Posts: 7,268
    edited April 2019

    Never, ever do I see a suggestion that prostate cancer was caused by not eating perfectly, drinking (or not) perfectly, maintaining a perfect weight and exercise level, avoiding the un-perfect deodorant, ad nauseum, and leading a sunshiny stress-free life. I call bullshit

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  • TwoHobbies
    TwoHobbies Member Posts: 2,118
    edited April 2019

    Marijen just posted the article I had seen too.

    While everyone does have stress, some have better physical resilience against stress. We may not be able to control all stressful things that happen to us, but we can improve the physical reaction in our bodies to that stress through things like yoga, meditation, exercise, or so studies say.

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  • MCBaker
    MCBaker Member Posts: 1,555
    edited April 2019

    Marijan, good find.

    Again, the number and severity of stressful periods in a person's life is a factor. And, no, I won't list mine.

    And there are plenty of stressful episodes in many persons' lives which were beyond those individuals' ability to control, just like cancer. Surgery (divorce), chemotherapy and others (medication), exercise (exercise), meeting spiritual needs (ditto). To blame oneself for stressful episodes is similar to blaming oneself for getting cancer.

    Spiritual needs also encompass reconciling oneself to death. We will all die sometime. I just came back from VA. I went into the ward scarfless, and I had some beautiful conversations.

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  • LoveFromPhilly
    LoveFromPhilly Member Posts: 1,308
    edited April 2019

    hi santabarbarian,


    I DO get what you are saying. I actually spun out pretty hard on the ACE myself a couple years ago when a colleague, who is a therapist said, “well, people better talk out their traumas or else they’ll get cancer later on.” I was so appalled and turned off that she said this. She used the ACE as a reference and that sent me on a tizzy to get to the bottom of it all.


    So I started doing serious research, read the entire study from beginning to end, spoke with several public health leaders about it and here is what I discovered:

    The study actually was created to help try and reduce childhood trauma from domestic violence, sexual abuse, etc. What it talks about is that people who experience these types of traumas at a young age, and without good family medical and psychological resources (the poor and underserved basically) can lead to behaviors such as smoking, alcoholism, drug addiction, unprotected sex, untreated mental health issues later in life. The behavioral habits of treating one’s body poorly without proper medical intervention is what COULD lead to some cancers that are behaviorally-related such as lung cancer and liver cancers. There is NOTHING that is pointing to a direct correlation between stress causing breast cancer in this study.

    The public health leaders that I spoke with were incredibly upset to learn that people are changing the means of this study to create and spread such incorrect information. So much to the point, that because of my bringing it to their attention, they are making sure to include educational information about it to the people they train (nurses, doctors, medical practitioners) to make them aware that this false message is being spread and hopefully to stop it.

    I’m not trying to be aggressive here, it’s just that this idea that unresolved stress and trauma causes cancer is a problematic way of thinking that doesn’t do anyone any good - it is a scare tactic that may help someone completely change their diet and lifestyle and start to work on their baggage (always good!) but in the long wrong, if that said person gets diagnosed with cancer, then the self blame ensues and then what???

    Again, how do we handle thinking about what causes testicular cancer?? All the stress in men’s lives? I just can’t deal!

    As a side note: I will never refer any of my patients to that therapist that I previously mentioned.

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  • Peregrinelady
    Peregrinelady Member Posts: 1,019
    edited April 2019
    MelissaDallas, I agree.
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  • santabarbarian
    santabarbarian Member Posts: 3,085
    edited April 2019

    There is a large distance "here are likely best practices which generally lead to healthier outcomes" and "you caused your cancer by not being perfect." When people are discussing the former it does not imply the latter.

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  • Peregrinelady
    Peregrinelady Member Posts: 1,019
    edited April 2019
    Yes, but the general public tends to think this. I even did it myself. I thought to myself, My sister did IVF and my dad drank, when they were diagnosed with MBC and pancreatic cancer and subsequently passed away. It was my mind’s way of saying that I could control my chances. Guess what, it was genetic.
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  • santabarbarian
    santabarbarian Member Posts: 3,085
    edited April 2019

    I don't think stress causes BC in a simple, directly-causal way..... but I do think well-managed stress is a tentpole element of good health. Severe stress can be a large blow to the immune system, even before poorer dietary and behavioral choices come along.

    Very bad ACES in childhood are frequently at the root of mental illnesses, and mental illnesses are extremely stressful to have AND can further trigger poor self-regulation choices (drugs, etc). So the interplay between stress and later health outcomes is multi-layered. Very bad ACEs can lead to PTSD, but they can also cause adrenal exhaustion at an early age, which is a biological effect. Or stress can cause circadian disruption (a known cancer-promoter). There are many biophysical elements to stress.

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  • Misha13
    Misha13 Member Posts: 240
    edited April 2019

    Great conversation! I don't think anyone is blaming us for getting cancer, nor do I feel I've done something “wrong", but the mind-body connection is real. Can I deny away or pray away or visualize away the cancer; no, but like Wildplaces said, repeatedly not dealing well with stressors contributes to when and how. It also makes one less likely to eat well, get enough sleep, take time to exercise, and for some it leads to self-medicating. These behaviors are proven to negatively effect the body and are likely to have been a factor.


    Santabarbarian-I just reread your post and you said exactly what I was trying to say!


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  • Meow13
    Meow13 Member Posts: 4,859
    edited April 2019

    Just to let you know, I deleted my initial post because it was personal, a little too personal to leave open to the public on the web. I was under unusual stress that never relented. It is not that way now, I suspect my immune system is better than it was.

    I encourage everyone in a similar situation to not take it lightly your health can be put at risk.

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  • Wildplaces
    Wildplaces Member Posts: 864
    edited April 2019

    The OP posted under Emotiona: Depresion and Anxiety. The OP does not suggest treating stress and not breast cancer, or using lifestyle modification as a panacea for all evil. As far as I can tell the OP just wonders whether a series of significant negative life events affected her health and this presentation of BC.

    I have found the backlash from those who choose not to believe MAJOR stressors impact on health and specifically the odds of having a cancer illness during life, apart from being WRONG ( and if you think I am baiting you on evidence yes 🙂I am ) rather mean spirited.

    Surely those who believe that stress and its physiological, social and resource consequences affect their health and presentation of their disease can find a place to write about it without being admolished.


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  • Peregrinelady
    Peregrinelady Member Posts: 1,019
    edited April 2019
    I agree that stress affects health and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) also may affect the potential for health issues as an adult. What I disagree with is the emphasis on breast cancer in particular and the perception that women who are diagnosed somehow didn’t take care of themselves well enough, whether it be from diet, lack of exercise or not handling stress well enough. All health issues can be precipitated by stress and all people experience stress in one way or another.
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  • Meow13
    Meow13 Member Posts: 4,859
    edited April 2019

    I could be wrong but I thought the original poster was talking about unusually and unrelenting stress as Wildplaces says. Some of these posts are why people leave BCO, they are rude or maybe condescending is a better description.

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  • MCBaker
    MCBaker Member Posts: 1,555
    edited April 2019

    Thanks for the support.


    Irelevant detail: I had an ovary removed at the age of 21, so it is quite reasonable that my cancer was hormone negative.

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  • santabarbarian
    santabarbarian Member Posts: 3,085
    edited April 2019

    I agree with previous comments... People can get very defensive if you talk about risk factors like stress, obesity, diet, sedentary life, etc.... as though you are accusing them of having caused their cancer. Pique can definitely arise in discussions about diet/getting rid of sugar. People get downright hostile about the suggestion that how we eat effects cancer. But it does. How could it not? Sugar is not a whole food; we did not evolve to handle it. Though I was a low sugar eater compared to the USA average, I was high sugar eater compared to "state of nature."

    I do not feel I caused my cancer -- I feel it was a random mutation of cells. But for some reason my immune system did not catch it in time, and my micro-environment was "friendly" to its growth. I choose to look at factors within my control, like diet and exercise and micro environment, and try to make myself a bad host. :-)

    If people do not discuss prostate cancer with respect to these issues, it's probably because men don't discuss stuff like women do! I am sure the same set of factors apply in all cancers.

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