Stress and Cancer

I've been catching up on my Horizon episodes this week as I'm on holidays. As usual, it is insightful in the extreme and often seems relevant to what is going on in my life.

The episode I watched last night was "The Truth about Fat". It is mostly about what causes people to overeat and what can be done for obese people to change their eating habits. All very interesting. However, what I found of most interest was a study by Prof. Tim Spector from King's College, London  on identical twins. They are genetically identical in every way but the twins he is researching have a marked difference in their weight as adults.  The presenter, Surgeon Gabriel Weston, said that "Stress can create parallel but different destinies. Spector stated that "When they were put under stress they reacted differently" (i.e. the one with more stress put on more weight due to the relevant gene 'switching on' and that "It is not set in stone - you can reverse whatever signal has taken place to switch a gene on."
Now, I have blogged before about my firm belief that I caused my own cancer as a result of the environment I put myself in (i.e. stress). But that is all it was, a belief, a feeling I was right. What this program has hinted is that there is more direct scientific research to suggest that genes can be switched on and off as a result of environment. This may not be news to some people but it was to me. I have a science background and had always assumed that genetic predisposition is exactly that, set in stone at the moment of conception. My oncologist said that what happened to me was a 'genetic blip', not caused by environmental factors which causes some cancers (e.g. smoking, drinking excessively etc.).  While this makes sense, I have recently believed that this 'blip' had a trigger. Stress, I believe now, was that trigger, despite some of the things which I have read that suggests this is unlikely.

So the upshot of this for me is very positive. It is even more reassuring that reducing stress in my life, obviously along with eating healthily and taking exercise, will definitely reduce the likelihood of cancer in the future.  It has also driven the need for more personal research in this area to understand what kind of stresses may have a genetic impact. Any pointers would be much appreciated.

Stress

A few years ago I saw a great documentary on BBC2 by Stephen Fry on depression. It was largely about his own difficulties with depression and how it impacted his personal and professional life.

As usual with Fry, it is has total honesty that endears one to him (I read his autobiography last year and was astounded by this). Anyway, he also interviewed other people who had depression, the most notable of which for me was Richard Dreyfuss.

He described how he has regular serious depression - the kind where he took lithium on a regular basis. He said that the most productive time in his life was in the late 70s and early 80s when he had very few bouts of depression - and then his career took a nosedive as he relapsed and working became so very difficult. What was most interesting to me though was how Dreyfuss described stress (which came from the depression in his case, but his comment was general). 

He said that when you are stressed you literally cannot function like you normally do. It is exactly that lack of stress which allows you to function, be productive and have normal healthy relationships. Now this may sound like common sense but we all find it difficult to cope with normal life when we are stressed due to children, work and other commitments (like taking too much on).

This is something I have become even more conscious of since I have been sick. I am not saying I am never stressed (well, I'm rarely as stresses as I used to be) but I regularly notice the lack of stress now - I recognise it when I am "fully present", which happens more often than it ever did. This has helped me make some decisions recently about helping to remove sources of stress (and potential sources). I stop when I am tired now and don't try to do everything or be all things to all people. I think I'll always have to work on this though as it does not come naturally to me. But as you might expect, I am a strong believer in a link between stress and cancer so this is my motivating factor.