After a few doctors told me about the importance of removing stress from my life, now that I’ve got cancer, it got me interested. How big a deal is it really? Is it just new-age pseudo-medical theory, or is there actually medical/scientific basis to stress causing tumours and being a potentially life-shortening thing for cancer battlers?

It makes sense, from a purely non-medical logical train of thought. Stress is well known to decrease your immune system’s efficiency, which is why people get sick more often when going through stressful periods… and a weakened immune system when battling cancer isn’t exactly a good thing

From: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/stress

Studies have indicated that stress can affect tumor growth and spread, but the precise biological mechanisms underlying these effects are not well understood. Scientists have suggested that the effects of stress on the immune system may in turn affect the growth of some tumors (7). However, recent research using animal models indicates that the body’s release of stress hormones can affect cancer cell functions directly (8).

This article in the Scientific American goes on to further explain…

a new study published April 12 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation shows that stress hormones, such as adrenaline, can directly support tumor growth and spread.

From  this ScienceDaily post:

Eric V. Yang, a research scientist at the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research (IBMR), exposed samples of three melanoma cell lines to the compound norepinephrine, a naturally occurring catecholamine that functions as a stress hormone.  In times of increased stress, levels of norepinephrine increase in the bloodstream.

…

The researchers showed that the norepinephrine molecule binds to receptors on the surface of cancer cells and once this linkage occurs, it stimulates the release of the proteins that support angiogenesis and tumor growth.

That’s just from a quick search, and there are thousands of sites and blogs stressing (pun intended) the importance of it all.

I don’t pretend to understand all the medical explanations and theories, or be able to judge which ones may be correct and which are misguided… but from a purely practical self-experience level, I’ve found that when I cut out as much stress as possible, I “feel” better, I get less flair-ups and infections, and I have more energy.

LiveStrong.com has a good page with non-medical but motivational/practical things you can do if you’re battling cancer and need to reduce stress, so check it out here.

Personally, I also just avidly believe that less stress is one of the most important things you can do to improve your quality of life in general. Lots of people strive to make as much money as they can, buy as many shiny things as they can, and climb as high on the ladder as they can to feel good about themselves, but end up feeling nothing but pressure,  anxiety, and a never-ending lack of reaching that happy place.

Simply slowing down, setting a new (easier) goal as your happy place, and hitting that point quicker, will make you feel more accomplished and give you more enjoyment, than always striving for something you may never reach.

I used to be a very high-stress person. I would work a full-time job + do freelance web development on the side, and then have 2-3 hobbies, all of which were full-time. I was stressed a LOT, and it lead to various breakdowns, bouts of depression, and general crappy health. I stacked on weight, I ate badly, but I thought I was living live “to the max”. Looking back, all I really did was trade a little bit of fun for a LOT of stress and damage to my body.

One of the things I did after getting sick, was set a whole bunch of really simple goals that I wanted to hit… things such as “spend more time riding my bike”, and “go out to dinner more with my wife”, and “eat nicer food”… and now when I do those things, I feel more accomplished than I ever did in my old “strive for the stars” life. I’m losing weight, I’m feeling better than I have just about any other time in my life, and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been… period.

I also figured out that my own personal key to happiness (and YMMV with this!) is quite simple:

If you take away all the “bad” things in life, the only thing left are the good things, that make you happy.

Life’s too short for fake friends, jobs you hate, people that upset you, or situations that stress you… and removing them will help you live longer and spend more time actually being happy. This simple little rule… assessing each person, place, activity or object, and deciding if they’re a positive or a negative, then removing it if it’s a negative, has made me happier than I’ve ever been.