We recommend that if you or your loved ones have cancer, or if you are looking for ways to prevent the tumor from returning after your cancer treatment, be sure to read on.
What factors can we control to prevent cancer recurrence?
Mental and emotional stress is one of the most important and well-known factors that can greatly worsen the condition of a person with cancer or cause a recurrence of controlled cancer after treatment.
What is the role of stress and anxiety in the worsening of cancers?
Why do cancers get worse with stress?
In this article, we intend to provide appropriate and scientific answers to the above questions.
Emotional stress can directly affect your body.
Stress can cause or exacerbate cancer and other diseases.
Cancer is one of the most well-known diseases associated with stress.
what you will read next :
Why are stress and anxiety so bad for cancer patients?
Your body and mind are closely related. Disorders in the body can cause problems in the mind. Of course, the opposite is also true, meaning that mental disorders and stress can also destroy your healthy body.
According to psychiatrists, anxious and restless minds can lead to a variety of physical disorders.
Mental disorders and recurrent and chronic anxiety increase the incidence of cancer.
Why do stresses make cancers worse?
In a very brief answer to the above question, we must say that in turbulent conditions of the mind and psychological and emotional stress, stressful conditions are created for your body, during which your body will produce and secrete hormones that interfere with the work of your immune system and finally it weakens the immune system.
Immune system dysfunction increases the risk of cancer and exacerbation of tumor symptoms and conditions.
We will talk more about these conditions later
If you or those around you have cancer and are currently in the treatment period, or if you are in the post-treatment period, be aware that you should consciously avoid stressful situations.
It is better to have a healthy and calm mind and get rid of anxiety and stress, be sure to seek advice from your doctor and get acquainted with effective counselors through your doctor and learn effective techniques for controlling anxiety and stress and relaxation.
What factors may cause severe psychological stress?
- Loss of loved ones
- Separation
- Losing a job
- Having heavy financial debts
They can be very harmful depending on your tolerance threshold.
Anxiety is a common condition that almost all people with chronic illnesses struggle with, so it is important for them to be aware of stress management techniques because chronic stress and anxiety are associated with a weakened immune system and the system itself. Immunity will worsen the body’s ability to fight disease and cancer.
Cancers are said to be the third leading cause of death, and one in four healthy people will develop cancer in the future.
The main cause of cancers is not yet fully understood, but there is a factor that leads to abnormal proliferation of abnormal cells in a tissue and the development of cancerous tumors.
Disorders in genes
There are genes in our body that our body translates into specific proteins, and it is these proteins that carry out the instructions in our genes.
It is said that there are genes in our body that prevent the proliferation of our cells without proper programming. Sometimes it is a disorder of these inhibitory genes that leads to the cancer of a tissue.
In addition, every day, due to chemical toxins and etc. malignant changes in our genes, which are identified, repaired and corrected by our healthy immune system, so any defect in the activity of our immune system prevents the repair of these defective genes and as a result, in the presence of a weakened immune system with stress and mental anxiety, the risk of cancer will increase.
Immune system disorders
In addition to the above, when a cancerous tissue develops, the immune system will send its soldiers to the affected tissue to fight these malignant and dangerous cells.
Here, the role of the immune system in fighting the tumor is very important. In the presence of an equipped and strengthened immune system, the fight against malignant cells will be done well, but if for any reason, for example, the immune system is weakened due to emotional and psychological pressures, the fight will not be done well and the situation will get worse and worse.
War hormones
One of the other subtle that needs to be addressed here is in the following:
When our body is exposed to stressful conditions, a series of hormones called stress hormones are released in our body. In general, the purpose of these hormones is to increase our ability and energy to fight and escape from potentially dangerous situations.
Cortisol is one of these hormones that increases stress and raises blood sugar levels, but this increase in blood sugar is not at all suitable for someone with cancer Because cancer cells are increased by feeding on this blood sugar, they get more and more energy and multiply faster, and unfortunately, they will spread more in the presence of emotional and psychological stress.
Environmental and genetic factors
In the development of cancers, physicians consider both environmental and genetic factors to be involved. The disturbing events and experiences around us can affect the central nervous system of our body and have specific conditions and responses to the body by changing the function of the central nervous system.
These processes will eventually have a negative effect on the body’s immune system, reducing the function of the immune system and sometimes even interrupting normal immune processes.
As a result of mental and psychological stress, your endocrine glands will also undergo serious changes and, as we said, it will be accompanied by the secretion of stress hormones, (cortisol) from the adrenal glands and adrenal stimulating hormones from the hypothalamus.
People with chronic stress have high levels of these hormones chronically, which puts them at greater risk for immunodeficiency and cancer.
It is said that in people who have cancer and are in the process of treatment or have completed their treatment and are recovering from treatment,
Frequent and chronic stress may exacerbate despair and hopelessness. If these people are not monitored and given psychotherapy, and if they do not receive adequate psychological support, they may refuse to see a doctor and continue their treatment, Or they may become so frustrated that they no longer report their new symptoms to others, their doctor, or their treatment team.
The final word
What we have said is just a little about the destructive and serious effects of psychological stress on the lives of cancer patients, which if left untreated can lead to very severe disabilities and even worsening of death.