There’s a lot of information out there about cancer, and it can be hard to know what to believe. Some people might tell you that cancer is purely a genetic disease. Others might claim that it’s caused entirely by environmental factors.

The truth is, it’s likely a combination of both. While researchers are still working to help us find answers to these types of questions, there are a few things that we do know for sure. One of these is the role that stress and inflammation play in cancer development. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at what that means for you and your loved ones.

A cancer diagnosis can be very scary and confusing, and once you have  it the learning curve is very steep to understand this new “language.” What is going on inside cancer cells, the treatment names, and protocols, their side effects, let alone trying to figure out “What did I do wrong that caused this to happen in the first place?” And of great importance, how do I prevent it from spreading and/or coming back once it’s supposedly gone?

As an integrative oncologist, I focus on helping people come back stronger after cancer and help them learn how to make the right choices to prevent its recurrence. People often want to know what is underlying that led to their cancer.

Well, there is never just one reason, and likely you will never truly know, but that is honestly okay because we can still improve your immune system and transform your body and mind into a well-functioning system regardless.  We must emphasize reducing the real drivers of mutation – stress, and inflammation. All of which are by-products of living, but why do some people’s inflammation cause mutation and others don’t?

There are many stressors that we are exposed to throughout our life including mental, emotional, physical, and chemical. They can not be avoided completely, but the total load of toxicity the body can handle is different for everyone. Eventually, we start to see signs of “toxic overflow.” This manifests symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, weight gain, hair loss, infections, digestive compromise, and more serious chronic conditions like autoimmune disease.

Chronic infections can also weaken your immune system, and often many people don’t even know they exist because they are “subclinical” and don’t necessarily cause obvious symptoms like an acute infection does. Consider that even the treatments for many of these issues (things like antibiotics and ibuprofen) can put the body into greater compromise.

Aside from toxicity or infection, physical stress comes from being sedentary or the opposite – being an athlete or overworked without the proper amount of recovery or downtime. Chemical stress also impacts our bodies. Whether they’re toxins from the air we breathe, pesticides that we take in from foods or other medications that we’ve taken that are directly toxic to certain organ systems of the body. Did you know that over 90 percent of people tested have abnormally high levels of plastic in their urine?

Lastly, and most important in its impact on our lives is emotional stress. It creates all kinds of imbalances in the body including digestive (think gut-brain connection), hormonal, immune, and mental. So many people then put more fuel on that fire by how they respond to their unhealthy relationships and anxieties- emotional eating! Emotional eating further impairs your hormones, especially those that control blood sugar and metabolism.

Whenever our bodies sense stress, fight or flight hormones are released. This eventually leads to weight gain, greater levels of pro-inflammatory chemicals in our bloodstream, and more DNA mutations. It’s a lose-lose situation. And if you do not have daily practices built into your schedule to neutralize stress and its ravaging effects on the body, the resulting impact on your health can be devastating.

Ultimately the choices we make on a daily basis contribute over time to the body’s ability to combat stress successfully, get rid of what doesn’t serve us, and be able to repair the damage.

Over time, our virtual barrel of toxicity from all of these stressors starts to overflow.

Inflammation occurs and we feel it in our joints, we see it in our digestive function, brain fog, inability to focus, weight gain, and more.

Genetic cancers, in fact, account for only between 5 and 10% of those diagnosed, but even for these people, it becomes even more important to make sure that their health status is optimized since genetics are already not in their favor when it comes to recurrence, but we all have more control than we think!. 

We need to control the inflammatory cytokines, the chemicals that are released in the body subsequent to a newly perceived stressor, that lead to and fuel cancer. This can be done through diet and detox and maintaining our liver health primarily. 

If you are not doing a formal cleanse on a regular basis throughout the year like you would change the oil in your car so it runs smoothly, your body is going to succumb to the inflammation subsequent to toxicity. It’s that simple.

Cancer cells actually create their own ways to produce inflammation on the inside. So the more inflammation, the more cancer will grow. A lot of people feel like sugar drives cancer when really it’s inflammation- but sugar doesn’t help!.

Although cancer opens up a world of unknowns, it doesn’t have to leave you less of a person than before it came. Become empowered through education, but stay away from Dr. Google! There are many things you can do to help support your body and keep cancer from coming back, but you have to know what is right for you vs. everyone else. Otherwise, it is a waste of time and money.

I hope this article has helped give you some insight into what impacts cancer growth and how to prevent it. If you want more personalized advice or just want someone to talk to, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We would be happy to schedule a free discovery call with you and discuss your individual situation in more detail. 

Thank you for taking the time to become educated and for your commitment to finding the right answers for you!

If you’ve found this interesting and would like to learn more about how it might look for us to partner in helping you reclaim your health, please register for a free discovery call today.