stress

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petroglyph
petroglyph Member Posts: 41
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

I have a question I would really like some feedback on.

I have read and now I have met a doctor that said something I have wondered about.

That is this. I have seen/heard it said that "anyone" who develops cancer has had some significant stressful event, probably in the last 18 months?

Stress kills as surely as does smoking, [I have been guilty of both], I don't smoke anymore but I do stress, you all know how that goes.

Is it just a net cast out in a pond that catches everything or can some of you confirm the prior exceptional stress event in your lives?

Something major, not a minor happening.

Thanks for your reply's either way,,,,,,,,petro

Comments

  • cureitall66
    cureitall66 Member Posts: 913
    #2
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    I've been curious too....

    As a caregiver, I've wondered that very same thing. I read it somewhere along the way. My loved one suffered a heart attack about 8 yrs ago and then 2 yrs after that had triple bypass. He was only 45 at the time of his heart attack. I thought it was brought on by a stressful time in his life.....and then the cancer comes along....5 years later. 

    It does make you wonder. I guess I have not researched it enough to know that it's factual, but it has been said that stress seems to bring on some diseases.   

    You make a very good point here. Life can be pretty eventful, can't it?

  • Ladylacy
    Ladylacy Member Posts: 773 Member
    #3
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    Cancer

    My opinion, doctors don't know what causes cancer.  They blame everything and anything they can. I know people who have died from lung cancer that never smoked a day in their lives, same goes for esophageal cancer and head and neck cancer.  Why do babies and small children die from cancer, surely they don't have stress.    But go back 100 or so years ago, ever wonder how many people had cancer.  If stress can cause cancer then I would say I'm eat up with cancer.  Now stress can cause heart problems that I know.  But in the last 4 years I have been eat up with stress, dealing with my husband's cancer (who did not have a major stress, only smoking and drinking beer), grown children and their problems and the list could go on.  If stress actually causes cancer guess I would have had cancer a long time ago while raising 4 sons and the stressful situations they put me thru as teen-agers and in fact still do.

    Personally, I think all the preservatives that are used in our foods today causes a lot of different cancers.  Now stress certainly can't help those diagnosed with cancer that's for sure, but to actually cause cancer, my opinion, I don't think so.

     

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    #4
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    I had constant....never ending

    stress for 3 years before I got cancer.....it was over a sick dog....a dog who couldn't always pee.  Everytime we'd go outside, my heart was in my throat, just as if something horrible was going to happen....and if he peed fine, I get a wave of relief not unlike how I feel after a scan.  This was at least 8 times per day....night and day, so there was also a significant lack of sleep during that 3 year period.  The amount of stress this caused me was the first thing I thought about when I was diagnosed. 

    On the other hand, I smoked for many years...drank A LOT until I was in my 30's, and generally had a crappy diet, too....6 of one, and a half dozen of the other.  AND my mother had throat cancer.....so hard to tell.

    p

  • wmc
    wmc Member Posts: 1,804
    #5
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    Not stress but .............

    Not stress but I changed cigaretts to Camel Crush and I started coughing hard and wife saw a differance. I went fron moderate [stage 2] emphysema to severe bullous emphysems [stage 3] in six months and even my Dr ask what the heck happened. My GURD got much worse as well. Not stress related tho.

    Bill

  • donfoo
    donfoo Member Posts: 1,771 Member
    #6
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    p16

    If the SCC is tested for HPV and is HPV p16 or 18 positive then that is a pretty direct connection. Heaving smoking and drinking are synergistic and increase chance of oral cancer a lot. Genetic predispositions are certainly a risk factor as well. Stress is something that is mentioned but I have not seen any reports published in peer review journal, not to say they do not exist, just that I do not recollect seeing any. Then again, this is something I spent no time researching.

  • thennies61
    thennies61 Member Posts: 285
    #7
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    I also have wondered.When I

    I also have wondered.When I was told about the tumor under tounge and that it was cancer thought what the heck never heard of it before.Talking with my surgen and ent never know what can cause it.I smoked but stop drinking over 25yrs ago.Could be diet could be even the the plastic bottles we use for water and pop.I did drink alot diet soda which may or may not of had something to do it.I DO belive we all have that crazy cancer gene in us and sometimes it takes off and sometimes it doesn't.Think that is why cancer comes to those that actually live pretty healthy lives while others who you can't figure out how they get out of bed are ok...

  • CivilMatt
    CivilMatt Member Posts: 4,722 Member
    #8
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    STRESS?

    petro,

    Giving credit to my stage IVa, scc, bot being HPV derived my question is:

    What caused the chink in my immune defense system to either not recognize or lack the ability to fight the HPVirus?   

    Was it stress?

    Matt

  • petroglyph
    petroglyph Member Posts: 41
    #9
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    CivilMatt said:

    STRESS?

    petro,

    Giving credit to my stage IVa, scc, bot being HPV derived my question is:

    What caused the chink in my immune defense system to either not recognize or lack the ability to fight the HPVirus?   

    Was it stress?

    Matt

    @ civilmatt, Looking at your

    @ civilmatt, Looking at your reply I am getting out of it that you were/are hpv positive? The hpv is a test that they give H&N cancer patients to determine if they have human papilloma virus. 

    That is what Michael Douglass has that I think he was angry with his wife for? My understanding is the patients that are hpv positve are easier to treat and therefore "cure". I was negative for hpv and they never found the tumor and no tumor markers. That is my reasoning as to why I refused rad/chemo. I have had disagreements with my onco/ ortho etc. drs. about it. For rad the first thing they wanted me to do was pull my molar teeth out. I have spent a lifetime taking care of them and spent out of pocket the price of a fairly decent fishing skiff. The mask, the horror. Them just wanting to rad me "statistically" with no known tumor. It is/was tough to just say no, but FOR ME PERSONALLY, I am still good with my decision. If they had found a tumor and not just wanted to do general rad, "just in case", I might have went along with it?

    MY posts are my opinion only and not to be taken as medical advice, I have a hard enough time making my own difficult decisions. But, with my cheeesy disclaimer out of the  way. Stress is a killer. It causes all manner of illness, including heart etc.

    I think I got too much stress too many times and it knocked down my immune system. That's what I think. I also don't know how to get rid of it. The "disease" is stressful in itself, we all know how it invades our thoughts. Then I amp right up and there is no going back to sleep.

    Take a look at people who live into their nineties or beyond. I notice everyone interviewed says something along the lines of "don't worry about it" or like my neighbor in her nineties she says you got to laugh every day, find something to make you laugh, laugh hard and often.

    If we don't choose, we at least influence the direction of our happiness. 

    How does anyone else think about stress being a precursor to disease???

     

     

     

  • CivilMatt
    CivilMatt Member Posts: 4,722 Member
    #10
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    petroglyph said:

    @ civilmatt, Looking at your

    @ civilmatt, Looking at your reply I am getting out of it that you were/are hpv positive? The hpv is a test that they give H&N cancer patients to determine if they have human papilloma virus. 

    That is what Michael Douglass has that I think he was angry with his wife for? My understanding is the patients that are hpv positve are easier to treat and therefore "cure". I was negative for hpv and they never found the tumor and no tumor markers. That is my reasoning as to why I refused rad/chemo. I have had disagreements with my onco/ ortho etc. drs. about it. For rad the first thing they wanted me to do was pull my molar teeth out. I have spent a lifetime taking care of them and spent out of pocket the price of a fairly decent fishing skiff. The mask, the horror. Them just wanting to rad me "statistically" with no known tumor. It is/was tough to just say no, but FOR ME PERSONALLY, I am still good with my decision. If they had found a tumor and not just wanted to do general rad, "just in case", I might have went along with it?

    MY posts are my opinion only and not to be taken as medical advice, I have a hard enough time making my own difficult decisions. But, with my cheeesy disclaimer out of the  way. Stress is a killer. It causes all manner of illness, including heart etc.

    I think I got too much stress too many times and it knocked down my immune system. That's what I think. I also don't know how to get rid of it. The "disease" is stressful in itself, we all know how it invades our thoughts. Then I amp right up and there is no going back to sleep.

    Take a look at people who live into their nineties or beyond. I notice everyone interviewed says something along the lines of "don't worry about it" or like my neighbor in her nineties she says you got to laugh every day, find something to make you laugh, laugh hard and often.

    If we don't choose, we at least influence the direction of our happiness. 

    How does anyone else think about stress being a precursor to disease???

     

     

     

    limit stress you can control

    petro,

    I lived a very (in my opinion) “stress free” life leading up to cancer.  Many people are exposed to the HPV and their natural defense system(s) keep it in check i.e. they do not develop cancer.  Mine did not.

    Playing the HPV blame game is a losing scenario, where is the definitive proof?  (who, what, where, why & how)

    Rads with known primary, rads in the field?  Complicated decision of trust, many variables.  We all (should) want to take our best shot.

    De-stressing in Oregon,

    Matt

  • petroglyph
    petroglyph Member Posts: 41
    #11
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    There is a good article in

    There is a good article in this months AARP magazine, Nov. 2014 about stress and the illness it contributes too in the body. The article stops short of mentioning it as a cause for cancer but not very short. With fighting the disease, it doesn't help to have anything else plaguing our bodies.

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