OPTIMIZE YOUR HEALTH
Protecting Your Vision

At Least Cancer Isn't Affected by Stress...Is it???
By Ryan Seay, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist

We know that stress can increase blood pressure and contribute to migraines, but can stress increase the risk and spread of cancer? The short answer is, “Yes”. Recent research indicates that the hormones released during chronic stress change how cancer cells grow. The change is not for the better.

The invasive potential of ovarian cancer cells is enhanced when exposed to stress hormones (norepinephrine, epinephrine, and cortisol). Other research indicates that the interaction of stress hormones with cancer cells tend to create an environment that increases cancer cell growth, leading to the increased spread of the disease. Research investigating prostate cancer reveals the same stress-disease processes.

The common finding among many disease processes is ‘stress’. As has been reported before, 60-90% of physician office visits are psychophysiologically related. This means that stress contributed to the disease and/or symptoms.

We can’t get rid of stress, but we can manage it. Below are a handful of stress management techniques that can help improve your health resilience and decrease unwanted medical symptoms (not to mention medical costs). Learning stress management techniques can improve the quality of life with the only side-effects being increased health and happiness.

1. Walk. Walking is easy to do and has been shown to be an exercise with the least amount of injuries. Find a pair of shoes and walk for 20-30 minutes on most days of the week. It will benefit your mind and body by reducing stress.

2. Meditate. Learn one of the hundreds of different ways to meditate. Research shows that those that meditate on a regular basis are healthier than those that don’t.

3. Practice seeing the glass half-full. Become aware of your habitual cognitive patterns. Optimists are healthier and happier than pessimists.

4. Focus on solutions, rather than problems. Changing ways that we perceive the world reduces stress, when we cultivate the power of thinking positive.

5. Make a list of the things you love or are passionate about. Pick one and integrate it into your life. Continue down the list until you have integrated all the things from your list. Essentially, you would have just increased the quality of your everyday life because you are doing what you enjoy. The result of is reduced stress and we know that reduced stress is better for the mind, and the body.

—September 2007

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