Stress Increases Cancer, Heart Disease and Rheumatoid Arthritis

A little stress can do us good. It pushes us to compete and innovate. But chronic stress can increase the risk of diseases such as cancer, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and even depression. Studies have shown that stress can promote cancer indirectly by weakening the immune system's anti-tumor defense or by encouraging new tumor feeding blood vessels to form. But a new study published this year in "The Journal of Clinical Investigation" shows that stress hormones, such as adrenaline, can directly support tumor growth and spread.

For normal cells to thrive in the body, "they need to be attached to their neighbors and their surroundings," says the study's lead author, Anil Sood, from the University of Texas M.D, Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Cells that detach from their environment undergo a form of programmed cell death called anoikis. "But cancer cells have come up with a way to bypass this effect-they avoid anoikis," Sood says. This allows cancer cells to break off from tumors, spread throughout the body (in blood and other fluid) and form new tumors at distant sites-a process called metastasis. So Sood wondered:Could stress affect anoikis? "It surprised us that this biology hadn"t been studied before," he notes. "Stress influences so many normal physiological processes. Why wouldn"t it be involved in tumor progression?"

Sood and his colleagues looked at samples from 89 cases of human ovarian cancer grouped according to patient stress using the National Institutes of Health's Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale as a surrogate marker. Patient stress (according to the scale), along with elevated stress hormone activity were associated with higher levels of activated FAK (focal adhesion kinase), which was in turn linked TO FASTER DISEASE PROGRESSION.

Scientists realize that most diseases are affected by human emotions and controlling your emotions can reduce disease. Learning to control stress and worry in you life will have healthly benefits.