Relationship Between Cancer and Stress

Woman With Cancer Sitting Near Window

Stress affects 55% of the U.S. population every day. Stress refers to mental tension triggered by situations in your life. Some of these situations may be short-term and temporary. Suppose you’re taking public transit to work, and the bus breaks down. You have to wait 20 minutes for a replacement bus to arrive, which means you’ll be late for work, causing stress.

Some situations are long-term or chronic. You may experience a long-term stress response if you’re going through a divorce or filing for bankruptcy.

Stress triggers physical responses in your body. You may wonder if stress causes cancer, how stress affects your overall health, and how stress can affect you if you have cancer. Understanding how stress impacts your health, your risk of cancer, or your response to cancer treatment can help you understand the benefits of preventative medical scans and how you can improve your health by alleviating your stress.

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Are Stress and Cancer Related?

You may be wondering, “Does stress cause cancer?” While no studies conclusively prove stress causes cancer, studies do confirm that stress and cancer have an unhealthy relationship. Since stress triggers inflammation and other physical responses from your body, it creates an ideal breeding ground for precancerous cells. Prolonged stress can increase the likelihood of developing cancer because of these conditions.

Learning you have cancer can also trigger stress, which, in turn, makes it harder for you to fight cancer. You know the riddle about the chicken and the egg, and which comes first? That riddle is a good illustration of the relationship between stress and cancer. You may be stressed because of your health problems, which compromises your immune system and prompts other physical responses that make it harder to fight the cancer.

What Does Stress Do to the Body?

Your body responds to stress in the following ways:

Elevated blood pressure
Elevated blood sugar levels
Increased heart rate
Inflammation
Releasing epinephrine
Releasing norepinephrine

A short-term stress response may have minimal impact on your long-term health. However, prolonged stress can cause physical damage, increasing your risk of severe health issues, including the following:

Compromised immune system
Depression
Digestive problems
Enlarged heart
Headaches
Heart attack
Heart disease
Heart failure
Hypertension
Insomnia

How Much Does Stress Contribute to Cancer?

The relationship between stress and cancer can vary from person to person. Stress may contribute to cancer’s progression or make it more challenging to overcome cancer. Although studies don’t show evidence that stress causes cancer, there is evidence that stress could cause cancer to come back.

Since stress poses a risk of recurrence and can impede cancer recovery, it’s crucial cancer patients take steps to reduce stress levels during and after cancer treatment.

How Much Does Stress Impact Our Health?

Stress redirects your blood flow away from some organs, directing it to your brain and the muscles throughout the body. This happens because threats that could cause a person to run triggered stress responses in the past. Since most of the stress responses people face now don’t involve running from predators, this shift in blood flow usually isn’t helpful. Instead, it compromises your health. Without release, you can develop chronic stress if you’re exposed to additional stressors.

Stress can affect your health in the following ways:

You may develop behavioral issues affecting your well-being: Many people engage in unhealthy activities to alleviate stress. Examples of unhealthy behavioral responses include eating too much or too little, alcohol consumption, and drug use. All of these responses pose risks to your mental and physical well-being.
You may have difficulty breathing: Stress can make it challenging to get enough oxygen. Some people suffer from shortness of breath when stressed.
You have an increased risk of heart attack: Since stress causes hypertension, you have a greater risk of suffering a heart attack if you’re under stress
You have an increased risk of infections: Since stress compromises your immune system, you’re more likely to get infections or have difficulty overcoming illnesses
You may have reproductive problems: Stress can decrease your sex drive, cause erectile dysfunction, disrupt your menstrual cycle, and impede your ability to conceive
You may have stomach and digestive issues: When stressed, your body sends less blood to your stomach and intestines. The change in blood flow to these organs can cause nausea, diarrhea, and other symptoms.

How Can You Alleviate Stress?

In some situations, the most effective way to alleviate stress involves resolving the problem causing you stress. However, you can also use the following stress-reduction methods to manage and mitigate your stress levels:

Exercise
Healthy eating
Meditate
Muscle relaxation
Prioritize sleep
Yoga

How Can a Preventative Scan Help?

A preventative medical scan is a crucial tool for assessing your health. A preventative medical scan lets your doctor see what’s happening inside your body. Preventative Diagnostic Center offers several preventative medical scans in Las Vegas, including the following:

Preventative body scans
Preventative bone density scans
Preventative heart scans

Contact our team for a preventative medical scan near your Las Vegas location. You do not need a doctor’s referral. Our team includes a licensed medical doctor who can evaluate your scans and provide results. A preventative scan typically takes a few minutes from start to finish, which means you can get the health answers you need quickly and have a clear picture of what’s happening inside your body and how to address any issues.