Do you think stress can cause / trigger / accelerate cancer?

Stress can weaken your immune system so I thing it would definitely have an effect on your body’s immune system fighting anything off.

ETA : I do not think stress can GIVE you cancer.

Absolutely. Stress can exacerbate many illnesses.

This. 

I absolutely do.

Although unrelated, both my cancers followed a prolonged period of overwhelming stress . Both of them involved my ex,and I find it very hard not to blame him, as he had the option to change those things that were causing me stress and chose not to .

This has actually been studied quite a bit. There is little scientific evidence that stress causes cancer INITIATION, but some studies have shown stress to have impact growth.

A bit of a summary, you can find the actual studies on NCIB if interested:

www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/coping/feelings/stress-fact-sheet

This is what I was going to say. Cause? No. Exacerbate? Yes.

I think that it can exacerbate it and cause your body to have difficulty fighting off cancer or other ailments. But that isn't the only contributing factor and of course not everyone who gets cancer is going to have gone through extreme stress.

I don’t believe that stress CAUSES cancer. I don’t even believe that stressful situations necessarily cause STRESS. I DO believe that the body can only put up so much of a fight for so long. When we get fatigued, our immune system becomes overwhelmed, and then the cancer that is there can grow free of restraint. When we feel stressed, we tend to do things that are not healthful. We don’t eat right. We don’t sleep properly. We may feel more pain so we relieve that pain with meds or alcohol or sugar or whatever works. None of this helps our body fight off disease.

This post is stressing me out 😫

I vote yes. Stress can trigger acid reflux. Chronic acid reflux can result in increased risk of esophageal cancer.

I’m a 6 year survivor of a cancer that has a very high mortality rate.

I’ve heard these things before about stress and it always felt to me, especially when I was first diagnosed, that somehow that implied that I had done this to myself. If I had been less stressed or if I’d handled stress better maybe I wouldn’t have gotten cancer—that it was MY fault. Six years out I realize that as much as I wish I could understand why I got the cancer, there often just isn’t a reason. I know for me that’s really hard to accept but I refuse to believe that my inability to handle stress contributed to what happened to me.

Ironically, the last three years of my life have been more stressful than I could’ve ever imagined and definitely more stressful than the 50 years before I was diagnosed and my cancer—-which has a very high recurrence rate—hasn’t recurred. I don’t know if that proves anything or maybe I’m just the exception that proves the rule.

Emelle

I was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years after my husband died. Lots of my widow friends and parents also developed cancer within a few years after the death.

I don’t think the stress caused the cancer, but I do think it may contribute to a situation where you’re more likely to get all kinds of illness.

SweetieBugs, you okay?

No I do not.

I think when we have cancer, we're really likely to remember stressful events and go 'aha that caused it'. But what about all the times we were stressed before, and didn't get cancer? Why doesn't everyone who goes through something stressful get cancer? And why don't people who are less stressed have better recoveries? It doesn't make any sense.

It's also really far too close to victim blaming for my liking, I hate it when I feel like people are suggesting I'm either responsible for my cancer or responsible for it getting worse. Do I take that too personally? You bet I do because it drives me absolutely nuts.

Hope you're ok SweetieBugs