To deal with cancer, you also need to deal with stress. And the way you handle stress can have a huge impact on the way you and your health team manage cancer.
Stress is a normal response to feeling threatened or to facing a challenge you’re not sure you can meet. It can be chronic, which means it is long lasting and often gets worse over time. Or it can be acute, coming on quickly with short-lived but often severe symptoms.
Emotional stress can overwhelm you. It can make you feel helpless. It can interfere with your sense of well-being and cause you to lose hope that things will improve. It can lead to depression.
How Does Stress Affect the Way Cancer Progresses?
The effects of stress may stem from how your body responds to it. When you’re stressed, your body makes certain so-called “stress” hormones to deal with it. In many cancers, these hormones bind with cancer cells. That can make the cells more invasive and help protect them as they move from one part of the body to another. This makes it easier for the tumor to grow and the cancer to spread.
How Can I Protect Myself Against the Effects of...
People with better support tend to have better functioning immune systems. They also tend to have lower levels of certain stress hormones. This makes it less likely that stress will cause changes in the way a tumor grows.
