Time to stress cancer rates among the young
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CommentSubject: Time to stress cancer rates among the young
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 18:47:02 -0400
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
From globeandmail.com, Wednesday, April 24, 2002
Time to stress cancer rates among the young
GABOR MATÉ
More young people are being diagnosed with cancer in this
country, according to a report released last week by the Canadian Cancer Society
and the National Cancer Institute. Unfortunately, research into the causes of
this disturbing trend will focus on the usual suspects while ignoring what
likely is the most prevalent, single contributing factor: socially-induced,
psychoemotional stress.
Among the main culprits being mentioned are poor diets and
pesticides. Stress remains outside the frame of reference of most researchers,
epidemiologists and oncologists, despite its documented negative effects on the
immune system and despite many studies that confirm an association between
cancer and people's life stresses.
"Most people do not fully realize to what extent the
spirit of scientific research and the lessons learned from it depend upon the
personal viewpoints of the discoverers," wrote the great Canadian stress
researcher, Hans Selye. "In an age so largely dependent upon science and
scientists, this fundamental point deserves special attention."
It was Dr. Selye who first pointed out that stress of any
sort, whether physical or emotional, has certain characteristic effects in the
body, and in particular on the immune system. He noted that stressed laboratory
animals had shrunken spleens, lymph glands and thymus glands, all important
elements of the organism's immune functioning.
Since his pioneering work six decades ago, we have learned
much more about the damaging impact of stress on the human hormonal system and
immune apparatus. In fact, we have learned that the two are not separate systems
at all: They comprise one system whose components are intricately interconnected
with each other. This "supersystem" also includes the nervous system
and the brain's emotional centres. Nerve fibres electrically wire together all
these crucial tissues and organs. Shared molecular messengers ensure that they
all speak and understand the same chemical language. We can now map the complex
pathways through which stress may contribute to the causation of many diseases,
including cancers.
For example, the adrenal glands of chronically stressed
people produce chronically elevated levels of cortisol, the body's prime
"stress hormone." Cortisol exerts a powerful suppressor effect on
immune functioning. It causes atrophy of the lymph organs and diminishes the
numbers and the activity of immune cells essential in the defence against
micro-organisms and tumour growth. It also inhibits the effect of the
cancer-fighting chemicals produced by these cells.
A class of lymph cells called natural-killer (NK) cells is in
the vanguard of the body's immune surveillance against cancer. Research has
shown that women with breast cancer whose NK counts are low are at greater risk
for metastatic spread of their malignancy. Research has also shown that NK cells
decline with ongoing stress, as for example in medical students facing
examinations. "It may be said without hesitation," Hans Selye wrote,
"that for man the most important stressors are emotional."
Just how prescient he was is evident when we see that in this
same study of medical students, those who were the loneliest had the poorest NK
counts. In studies of the spousal caregivers of people with Alzheimer's disease,
immune functioning was found to be significantly depressed, with the most
socially isolated the most affected.
In the light of such findings -- all readily available in
mainstream medical publications -- it is not surprising that a recent Australian
study should have concluded that "women experiencing a stressor objectively
rated as highly threatening, and who were without intimate emotional social
support, had a ninefold increase in [the] risk of developing breast
carcinoma." Nor is it surprising that men who are currently married -- as
opposed to previously married -- are less likely to be diagnosed with metastatic
cancer of the prostate.
The effects of early life experience are powerful
determinants of people's later coping styles and, therefore, of their stress
levels. Lance Armstrong, double winner of the Tour de France, is a survivor of
testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain by the time he brought
himself to medical attention -- several months after he first noticed a painful
swelling on his testicle. His mother was an unmarried teenager, abandoned by Mr.
Armstrong's biological father (whom he contemptuously calls his "sperm
donor"). Mr. Armstrong's stepfather physically abused him for many years.
Roy, a young patient of mine with testicular cancer, had
strikingly parallel childhood experiences. He also ignored his swollen testicle
for nearly a year. I do not believe it is pure coincidence, but how is one to
know? There simply has been no research on emotional stress and cancer of the
testicle, despite the well-known association between stress and hormones and
despite the fact that the testes are hormone-secreting glands, very much
affected by emotional states -- as are the analogous female organs, the ovaries.
Where there has been research, such as with melanoma,
powerful associations between stress and malignancy have been identified.
The stresses of modern life have grown palpably more severe
over the past several decades. For many people, there is also growing personal
isolation following from the loosening of traditional social bonds. If we take
to heart the lessons taught by Hans Selye, we will seek the causes of malignancy
not only in what we ingest but also in how we have come to live our lives.
Gabor Mate (gmate@telus.net)
is a Vancouver physician. His next book, When the Body Says No: Illness and the
Hidden Costs of Stress, will be published next spring.
Well Mr. Helliker, Choose (unregistered) Life or choose
"registered" death for the people, they are at your mercy.
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
From Steve - Quotes to Ponder:
"The first task is population control at home. How do we go about it? Many of my colleagues feel that some sort of compulsory birth regulation would be necessary to achieve such control. One plan often mentioned involves the addition of temporary sterilants to water supplies or staple food. Doses of the antidote would be carefully rationed by the government to produce the desired population size." — Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb, p.135
"A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal." — Ted Turner - CNN founder and UN supporter - quoted in The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, June '96
"Childbearing [should be] a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license ... All potential parents [should be] required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing." — David Brower - first Executive Director of the Sierra Club; founder of Friends of the Earth; and founder of the Earth Island Institute - quoted by Dixie Lee Ray, Trashing the Planet, p.166
"Truth is not what is; truth is what people perceive it to be." -- Adolf Hitler, Propaganda Maxim
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