of the angriest and most hostile will live to be 100, cancer-free. Importantly, when a cancer patient is told that his or her disease is terminal, those who adopt cancer-resistant traits tend to live longer because their newly acquired behaviors will automatically boost immunity.
Mind-body techniques such as meditation, autosuggestion, visualization, and relaxation exercises can have a positive effect on cancer treatment. A patient’s coping style and recovery strategy are critical factors in five-year survival rates. Mortality is typically reduced for those who have a social support network compared with those who are socially isolated. Patients who establish a recovery program that includes stress management and relaxation techniques have fewer relapses.
A group of researchers at Stanford University found that patients with metastatic breast cancer had a higher quality of life, less pain, and lived at least two years longer if they belonged to a support group, even if they were anxious and depressed about their disease. Their results showed that social support acts as a stress buffer. The patients with cortisol fluctuations had shorter survival times and poorer quality of life, while those who had good family ties and ongoing social support networks had lower cortisol levels and longer survival rates.8
There’s a lesson to be learned from all this mounting evidence. By strengthening and conditioning the mind part of the mind-body connection, we can extend life and optimize the chances of recovery.
How Stress Affects Cancer Treatment
A common complaint about cancer treatment is “The cure is worse than the disease.” Cancer treatments like surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation can be painful and debilitating, both physically and emotionally. The subsequent stress reactions lead to depressed immune function, which then lowers survival rates. A friend of mine who had a rare type of cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy once told me that his treatment was so bad that he felt like just giving up. To him, it seemed as if the treatment was making his disease even worse.
Because cancer treatment can be so stressful in itself and lead to depressed immunity, it’s important to keep active and maintain as healthy a lifestyle as possible. Good nutrition is an important part of cancer treatment. Eating the right kinds of foods before, during, and after treatment will go a long way in helping you tolerate the treatment and eventual recovery. According to the American Cancer Society, you need to consume enough nutrients to meet the following goals:
1. Prevent or reverse nutritional deficiencies;
2. Decrease the side effects of the cancer or the treatment; and
3. Maximize the quality of life.
While a healthy diet is always important, it’s especially important for people with cancer because it will provide the reserves and strengthen the immune defenses needed to cope with the effects of treatment.
Patients suffering from the physical side effects of chemotherapy and the emotional stress of having cancer will invariably have even lowered immune responses. That’s because any kind of stress causes release of cortisol, which blocks the production of natural killer (NK) cells that attack cancer. While recovering from cancer treatment, the last thing a person may want to think about is exercise. But studies have shown that exercise is one of the key factors in improving the quality of life in cancer patients. One study published in 1997 showed that 70 percent of cancer patients experience fatigue during therapy or after surgery and 30 percent of cancer survivors report a loss of energy following treatment, both significant contributors to a decreased quality of life in cancer patients. A subsequent study done in 1998 showed that patients who participated in outpatient wellness programs consisting of aerobic exercise, strength training, flexibility, and relaxation had a 43 percent increase in strength and a 50 percent increase in endurance than those who did not participate.9
Both studies linked the benefits of physical activity to a decrease in emotional stress. Many studies since then have corroborated those findings and further concluded that stress management strategies during and after treatment play a vital role in a patient’s overall success rate.
From the moment we’re born we begin to die. Sounds depressing, but the fact is that we begin the aging process at birth and become more susceptible to disease at middle age and especially as we reach sixty years old and beyond. Many diseases normally kept in check by a young, healthy immune system are more likely to overcome a body that can no longer keep up. Chronic diseases disproportionately affect older adults and are associated with disability and diminished quality of life. According to the 2007 US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Report, CDC’s Disaster Planning Goal: Protect Vulnerable Older Adults, 80 percent of adults over sixty have at least one chronic condition, and 50 percent have at least two.
Some researchers have found that an accumulation of stress over time and age increases the body’s production of free radicals. Free radicals are molecules in the body containing unpaired electrons. Damage occurs when the free radical encounters another molecule and seeks to find another electron to pair with its unpaired electron. The free radical often pulls an electron off a neighboring molecule, causing the affected molecule to become a free radical itself. The new free radical can then pull an electron off the next molecule, and a chemical chain reaction of radical production occurs. This process causes damage to cells that contain free radicals. Other research indicates that when older people experience stress they have a lowered lymphocyte count and a decrease in the hormone thymosin, both factors in impaired immune function.
As we age, our homeostatic mechanisms don’t work as well as they once did. We don’t absorb calcium as well, our digestive and excretory systems are not as efficient, our immune systems are weakened, and our hearts are not as strong. We become less tolerant of stress, both physically and emotionally, which is the reason we don’t adjust as well to changes in temperature or blood pressure. We typically recover more slowly from infections, but even more so when we’re stressed. According to researchers, HIV-infected patients older than fifty have levels of depression five times higher than the general population, which further increases the risk of other diseases.10 Not surprisingly, as indicated in Figure 2.5, people are diagnosed with cancer at higher rates as they age.
Figure 2.5: Increase in Cancer Rates as Men and Women Age.
Stress hormones may also contribute to formation of amyloid plaques in the brain and progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at the University of California–Irvine found that when animals were injected with stress hormones, the levels of beta-amyloid production in the brain increased by 60 percent. They also found an increase in the production of another protein called tau, which leads to the formation of tangles, the other signature effect of Alzheimer’s. After just one week of experiments, the scientists saw plaque formation in young brains equivalent to brains that were twice as old. According to Frank LaFerla, PhD, professor of neurobiology and behavior and director of the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders at the University of California–Irvine, managing stress and reducing certain medications that contain glucocorticoids could significantly slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s.
Scientists are getting close to discovering the genetic link to aging, which causes cell structure and function to deteriorate. Studies suggest that we are programmed to self-destruct, but that we can postpone that destruction through diet, exercise, and reducing stress. The process of aging itself can trigger
