Cancer Fighting Foods
Print This Post
Stress
Just as a lesion on the skin activates repair mechanism, a psychological wound sets off mechanisms of the stress response: release of cortisol and adrenalin hormones and inflammatory factors, as well as a slow down in the immune system. At the same time stress slows down all the body functions that can be “put on hold” such as digestion, tissue repair. These physiological stress mechanisms particularly in stressed and depressed persons, can contribute to the growth and spread of diseases including cancer. The system linking psychology, neurology and immunology is known as “psycho-neuro-immunology”. In this system, the psychological aspect refers to the stress felt in response to difficult life experiences (such as an abortion, a child’s illness, a divorce or losing a job) or emotional pain. When people have the feeling that their life is no longer manageable, or that it leads to more suffering than joy (the psychological part), the neurological response to this stress is the release of stress hormones. These hormones in turn activate the nervous system, accelerating heart rate, raising blood pressure and tensing muscles, so they will be prepared to make an effort or stave off attack (this is the neurological part, commonly known as the “fight or flight” response). These same chemical hormones that activate the neurological response and organ-related reflexes of stress also adversely act on immune cells. Generally, post-traumatic stress is associated with a deterioration of the immune system and a decline in the activity of white blood cells and natural killer (NK) cells. The receptors on the surface of white blood cells detect the presence of stress hormones and react according to fluctuations in the levels of these hormones in the blood stream. Some of the white blood cells respond by releasing inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Natural killer cells are blocked by noradrenalin and cortisol, remaining passively glued to the walls of the blood vessels rather than attacking viruses or abnormal precursor cancer cells.
A Cancer-Prone Personality
People exhibiting cancer-prone personality are often people, who, rightly or wrongly, never felt fully welcome in their childhood. Their parents may have been violent or irascible or simply cold, distant and demanding. Often these children received little encouragement and developed a feeling of vulnerability and weakness. Later, to be sure of being loved, they decide to conform to the best of their ability to what was expected of them rather than follow their own desires. Rarely angry (sometimes never) they become “really nice” people as adults — always ready to help others — saints. They avoid conflict and put their needs and aspirations on the back burner, sometimes for the rest of their lives. In order to safeguard the emotional security that they so value, they may over-invest in a single aspect of their lives: their profession, their marriage or their children. When this investment is suddenly threatened or lost — by a professional setback or retirement, divorce or simply when children leave the nest — the childhood grief returns. Often it is more devastating because it elicits the feeling that whatever one does, emotional suffering is inescapable. This second trauma arouses feelings of helplessness, despair and abandonment. And these feelings — particularly helplessness — can weigh heavily on psychological and biological balance. Thus it is not stress itself that promotes cancer development, but it is the perception of control or helplessness the individual has that affects their body’s reaction to the disease
