Cancer Society of America | Stress and Cancer

Cancer Society of America | Stress and Cancer | Cause, Symptoms & Risk Factors | Diagnosis | Cancer Prevention, Early Detection & Treatment

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Managing stress is a great way to conquer cancers of any type,
because stress not only provokes the illness, but also prolongs it
in case of patients who are already under treatment. Stress
may be in any form like psychological, physiological, emotional
and social, and all these can devastate our life because cancer
is highly affectionate to the stress and stressful life.

Relationship between stress and cancer

1. According to ICD (International Classification of Diseases for Oncology), cancer can be classified under psychosomatic illnesses
because most of the cancer diagnoses are directly linked to cause of panic attacks, depression and stress related disorders. However,
there is currently no strong evidence regarding stress and the cause of cancer.

2. Hundreds of studies found that stress directly impacts our immune systems, and thereby makes one to be more prone for cancer
related disorders, so it is advisable to be cautious at initial stage.

3. Most of us heard of carcinogens which are nothing but cancer causing agents. These agents are produced when our body are stress
busted, which in turn, our immune system fail to fight against cancer causing agents during the times of stress. Stress directly impacts
on functioning capacity of our bodily systems in which triggers cancer causing agents in our body.

4. According to a research by Dr. Johnson, overly or increased stress puts the person vulnerable for smoking and alcohol, substance
abuse disorders which are major risk and causative factors for cancer in anyone.

Mechanism of stress in cancer

Cancer, and in fact any related stress disorder, can occur when the human body is suffering from deficit levels of adrenaline and oxygen due to the secondary effects.
Ultimately this deprivation and metabolic imbalance could lead to the mutation of genes, changes in nuclear structure of cellular components, ending up with cancer.
Physiological stressors like dehydration, excessive exposure to heat, irritants, poor nutrition, chemicals, prolonged usage of drugs, toxins, EMF radiation, related
disorders in liver, colon and kidney, lack of exercise, etc. In most of the cases a combination of above two or more factors can cause a cancer.

You need to be well informed about stress management. Proper scheduling of time, systematic life, life style modification, relaxation, getting enough sleep and
adequate nutrition and food, recreation, protection, emotional strength are parts that one need to work on to avoid a stressful life. Stress management can play an
important role for someone to substantially decrease risk of getting cancer.

Stressors have become a day by day part of our life. It can be a familial stress, Interpersonal, societal, physical, etc. It is found that the cancer incidences are more
common in families with divorce history, broken emotionally or financially, poor class, educationally deprived, etc. Stress can act as both etiology as well as a risk
factor for cancer. In case of patients who are already been diagnosed with cancer, stress can prolong the illness. Stress management can be a great reward because it
can bring down cancer symptoms by as much as 50%.