Seven days left until we reach the end of the cancer fundraiser that I've created for my friend, Sara Klaus. We are at 24% of our goal because of so many caring, generous people. What a morale booster it's been for Sara to see the donations rolling in and to read those encouraging words! Of course, I'm optimistic that we are going to meet 100% of our goal! 50% would be awesome, too!!
One of the things that I admire about Sara is her positive outlook and the effect it has on the strength she needs to fight this disease. I know that it’s not always easy for her to maintain that attitude, especially when there are plenty of other kinds of stresses in her life. Her doctors have been very straightforward with her-stress is one of the worst things for her! There are only a few studies that actually imply that chronic stress can actually cause cancer(1) but there are more studies proving that the state that your body is in when it’s under pressure may create the perfect environment for cancer sells to grow.(2,3) Yeah, and doesn’t a cancer diagnosis pretty much jack up your stress level?!
A couple of years ago I wrote a post about how stress can affect your health. Well…I guess I wrote 2 posts regarding this topic -the first in June 2011 “I Need a Nap- How Stress Can Zap the Life Out of You” and the other in August 2011 “Chronic Grief” Must have been quite the summer in my life-haha!
I’d like to say 2011 was the last time anxiety threatened to overtake me :/ I would love to “avoid stress” as many medical professionals have advised me. I guess you could say that I’ve had a lot of practice in “managing” my stress since it doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon!! Both of the previous posts list include some practical ideas to avoid imploding :)
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To be honest, I’ve been aware of how stress affects your mind which affects your body, but I guess I never realized the cancer connection. (I know how fortunate I am to have been cancer free so far)
Doesn’t it seem like cancer is every where? Makes me want to scream! Just as frequently, speculated causes seem to be rising to the surface. Because I’m in the fitness business, I hear many theories along with a variety of treatments. For years we have been looking at what is sprayed or injected into our foods, and the cancer connection. The air we breath is becoming more toxic every day. My friend, Sara, is currently investigating the effect that the alkaline level in our bodies may be preventing and reversing cancer (curious contact her via: Sara’s Cancer Fund ). I’ll let you research these topics on your own, since I’m no expert and I am a looong way from giving advice on this. My point is that we can all agree that there are cancer causing foods, chemicals, toxins, etc so why shouldn’t we blame stress as a cause for cancer (we all know cancer is a cause of stress! :)
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Some suggestions I’d like to leave with you:
1. Learn to manage your stress-for more health reasons than I can list.
2. Educate yourself on the many possible causes of cancer.
3. Take the time to encourage someone who it struggling-whether it’s from cancer, illness, or plain old life stuff!
4. Read Sara’s Cancer Story, to donate or to leave her a “hug”-if your life has been touched by cancer, you get it.
Don’t ever doubt that un-managed stress has the potential to kill you (4)! Manage your stress or it will manage you :)
Resources:
1. National Cancer Institute http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/stress
2. Forbes Magazine http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2013/01/29/new-study-shows-how-stress-feeds-cancer-cells/
3. Science Daily http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130822194143.htm#.Ump50D0K6b0.email
4. MD Anderson Cancer Center http://www2.mdanderson.org/cancerwise/2010/11/your-stress-will-manage-you.html
