Stress? The cause of cancer?
30th Nov 2005, 06:28 GMT
Does stress cause cancer? It is a question to which many cancer patients, cancer survivors and families of cancer patients answer with a resounding YES! However, in an article in the New York Times, evidence is given that stress does not directly cause cancer. Research shows that cancer cells produce proteins that tell the body's immune system to ignore them, allowing the cancer to grow. Despite the new data, many cancer patients stick to their guns and swear that stress did, indeed, weaken their immunes systems, thus permitting cancerous tumors to grow. So heated is the topic that some researchers are studying groups of cancer and non-cancer individuals to determine how they feel about cancer origins. In one such study, Dr. Polly Newcomb, the head of the cancer prevention program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, asked what sorts of life events had led up to their cancer diagnoses. Her results were clear: "there was no association between stressful events in the previous five years and a diagnosis of breast cancer. Other studies had the same result." Read Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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