How Stress Influences Cancer Development: The Striking Link

Stress is an unavoidable part of our daily lives. You can feel it when you’re going through a situation, worrying about the health of a family member, etc. While acute stress is nothing to fret about, the problem is when it becomes intense and keeps you on edge for months. This is called chronic stress. Although stress has been known as one of the hallmark risk factors for a myriad of health conditions or co-morbidities, it is rarely associated with cancer. Therefore, in this article, we will reveal a striking connection between stress and cancer development.

Risk Factors of Stress

Being aware of the following stress triggers will help you know how to control it. These include:

• Work pressure: Doing well in your career is one thing. Being chronically stressed at work is another thing entirely. This is especially true if you have a busy workload daily and rarely take a few minutes to cool off during the day. It could accumulate and cause long-term havoc to your health.
• Lifestyle factors: This includes lack of sleep and poor eating habits. Food is fuel for your body. This doesn’t imply that any kind of food is good for your body. Indulging in processed snacks and sugary beverages often will unknowingly take a toll on your body and increase your stress levels.
• Medical conditions: This is perhaps one of the most overlooked stress triggers. This is because worrying about a health condition, especially when you need to spend a large amount of money for treatment, can constantly increase the production of cortisol, leading to chronic stress.
• Relationship problems and past emotional trauma: Seeing people who flaunt their relationship online (or show you what they want you to see) can trigger feelings of inadequacy in your relationship. It might even make you magnify your relationship issues and see more problems where there are none. Also, unresolved past emotional trauma can constantly cause chronic stress more than you realize.

How Stress Influences Cancer Development

Chronic stress can impact cancer development through 3 major mechanisms: the continuous release of stress hormones, inflammation, and immune suppression. Stress hormones can promote tumor growth by inducing DNA damage and supporting cancer growth by influencing the tumor microenvironment. Furthermore, stress hormones can inhibit a process that occurs in your body called anoikis. This is a form of programmed cell death activated by inflammatory cells. It kills diseased cells and prevents them from spreading and causing harm. In other words, when this process is inhibited, cancerous cells can grow and spread at will.

On the other hand, coping with cancer and going through rigorous chemotherapy can also be a significant cause of chronic stress for people. Therefore, chronic stress can promote cancer progression and consequently support tumor growth and aggressiveness.

Tips to Reduce Stress

Even if you can’t rid yourself of what is causing chronic stress, you can learn to manage it. Here are some tips on how to reduce stress and prevent it from being problematic:

• Eat healthier diets and get adequate sleep.
• Adopt stress management techniques that work for you. This could be meditating, engaging in your favorite hobby, or visiting places that relax you.
• Take a natural stress relief supplement: NATURE’SFIELD STRESS DEFENCE is your ticket to naturally dealing with chronic stress without worrying about it. 

Stress is a part of life that is almost impossible to avoid. However, by taking steps to limit the triggers of chronic stress, you can reduce how much stress can affect your daily life. When stress does occur, manage it by incorporating the above tips and using NATURE’SFIELD STRESS DEFENCE, and find yourself enjoying the festive season without breaking a sweat.