Can your mind make you ill? Can your mind heal you? You bet! And there are experts who think both are definitely true and there's research to support them.
Depression, anxiety and stress are all linked to cancer and its spread.
a) Stress, anxiety and cancer -
For example, when you become stressed, your Hypothalamus (your command control centre for the body) sends messages throughout your nervous system, and some of these encourage your adrenals to produce Epinephrine, also known as Adrenaline. This does many things, but two of them are higher blood sugar and higher blood pressure. After the initial surge starts to calm down, a maintenance hormone called Cortisol, again produced by the adrenals through the HPA axis, keeps your body 'alert' (1).
Cortisol does many things. Another is it shortens your telomeres - these are at each end of your DNA. Shorter telomeres are linked to an increased risk of degenerative diseases including cancer, and to a lowering of life span (2). You age faster.
High levels of cortisol can suppress the immune system and also promote inflammation. The exact relationship between cortisol and cancer is complex, For example, the initial surge of adrenaline in stress conditions can bolster the immune system temporarily, but long-term stress weakens it, inhibiting immune functions (3).
A 2022 study from the Medical College of Georgia showed that lifelong stress increased the risk of dying from cancer by 14%. Constant stress was linked to a higher BMI, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and/or cholesterol, higher levels of albumin, creatinine and a higher CRP score (4).
Both Cortisol and Adrenaline can turn on an enzyme called Cox-2, present in every cell of your body. The result? 130 or so highly inflammation-causing localised hormones called eicosanoids. Sir John Vane won a Nobel prize for this discovery in 1982. Eicosanoids (including one group called Prostaglandins are involved in cancer spread. Yale Professor Tian Xu showed that these localised inflammatory hormones also affect two cancer-causing genes.
COX-2 has been shown to regulate tumor cell growth, promote tissue invasion and metastasis, inhibit apoptosis, suppress antitumor immunity, and promote sustainable angiogenesis (5) and stress, insulin and steroids can turn it on.
Cortisol can spike during the night and waken you, especially as you age.
b) Depression is linked to cancer.
There's a two way street between depression and cancer.
In a large 2023 study, depression was linked to an increased risk of cancer ranging from 10% to 39% increased risk depending on the type of cancer. Cancer risk was highest in patients with depression for lung, GI, breast, and urinary cancer.
One reason is that people who are depressed tend to have lowered plasma oxygen levels. And people who have low plasma oxygen develop more cancers. Not surprisingly then, people who are depressed develop more cancers. Cortisol is linked to depression, with some studies showing elevated cortisol levels in depressed individuals; but this is not always true.
Depression can be caused by cancer - and also its treatment. Testosterone lowering drugs can cause depression in me; drugs can also cause anaemia, fatigue and then depression; low iodine and a poor level of thyroid hormone, a poor microbiome and thus lowered serotonin and melatonin production, a poor diet etc. etc..
Depression is a prevalent and detrimental phenomenon among cancer patients, particularly those with advanced disease. Overall 24% of people with cancer have some degree of depression (7).
It's important to know that help is available for people with depression.
Stress management - how to restrict the problems
What might reduce cortisol levels naturally? Start with melatonin, ashwagandha and meditation especially mindfulness.
UCLA has a Department dedicated to studying stress and cancer. In their view, people who actively manage their stress, survive longer. They recommend a Rainbow Diet, fish oils, exercise especially yoga - to produce endorphins which neutralise cortisol, and meditation.
Not surprisingly, compounds that turn off Cox-2 reduce both inflammation and cancer spread - for example, a small aspirin, omega-3 DHA and EPA, curcumin, resveratrol, ginger, boswellia and frankincense to name but a few.
Stress also changes the pH levels in your gastrointestinal tract. You know how the loss of a loved one gives you a terrible pit in your stomach, or how stress at work physically upsets your stomach. In both cases, your gut bacteria become upset. One of their many functions is that they produce compounds essential to your good health - some are strongly anti-inflammatory. So stress upsets this, and causes more inflammatory compounds to be produced in the gut. Make sure you consume a Rainbow Diet and take a good daily probiotic. Have gut problems fixed - don't live with them.
Gut bacteria send messages to the brain via chemicals in the blood or via nerves. And vice versa. Your microbiome is really your Health Control Centre.
Consume tryptophan - chicken turkey, nuts, tofu - your gut bacteria will make serotonin, the happy hormone - not only can it reduce depression, but if you go outdoors for a couple of hours, even on a cloudy day, your mitochondria will convert this to melotonin.
A little melatonin is produced by the pineal gland under the brain as dusk approaches. It tells your gut bacteria and your mitochondria that its time to release their's. You make 100 times more melatonin by day, than at night.
Your mind can make you ill; your mind can heal you
At CANCERactive we see patients that don't just have short-term, recent stress, but those who carry baggage from their childhood and it ultimately makes them ill if they don't try to treat it.
Sometimes women have a problem partner and cannot express themselves - they just need to get things off their chest.
Sometimes we have women with breast cancer come to us two years after they lost their mum - a mum who meant the world to them and who was their greatest confidante.
We could go on. Seek help - UCLA talked about counselling. We prefer EFT and PSCHY-K
Much is in our section on complementary therapies.
Can your mind make you ill? Can it heal you? You bet!
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References
1. Understanding the stress response - Harvard Health Publishing
2. Stress and telomere shortening: Insights from cellular mechanisms; Jue Lin, Elissa Epel; Ageing Res Rev. 2021 Nov 1;73:101507
3. Immunology of Stress: A Review Article; Amna Alotiby; J Clin Med. 2024 Oct 25;13(21):6394.
4. Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. "Wear and tear from lifelong stress can increase cancer mortality." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 6 October 2022.
5. COX-2 Signaling in the Tumor Microenvironment; Yuan Zhang, Sean Tighe, Ying-Ting Zhu; Adv Exp Med Biol. 2020:1277:87-104.
6. Depression Is Associated with an Increased Risk of Subsequent Cancer Diagnosis: A Retrospective Cohort Study with 235,404 Patients; Hannah Mössinger, Karel Kostev; Brain Sci. 2023 Feb 10;13(2):302.
7. The mechanism of cancer-depression comorbidity; Lian Wei Huang et al; Neuroscience, Volume 556, 25 September 2024, Pages 25-30