This article was written by Raïssa Blankoff, naturopath based on the work of Prof. David Spiegel, Director of the “stress and health” center, Stanford University, United States.
For 40 years, Professor Spiegel has devoted himself to research in psycho-neuroendocrinology. He was able to establish links between disease and stress, and has demonstrated, in numerous studies, the triggering by stress of a cascade of reactions on other systems of the body: hormonal, nervous, metabolic, immune … He has notably studied the types and levels of stress faced by cancer patients.
There is not a stress, but stresses
Cancer does not generate stress but stress. How to cope with the announcement of the disease? How to live with a terrorist per se? How to put the anguish of death which affects around 50% of patients into perspective, while 50% ultimately die from other diseases? How to cope with changes in family and clothing, how to find a different place in the same world, how to eat, how to sleep? The end of treatment is also stressful: what will happen when you stop chemotherapy? When you are no longer taken care of daily by the medical staff? What is the risk of recurrence? What to do with the fear of isolation? Each stage is likely to generate its own stress. Professor Spiegel shows how these stresses have direct effects on the disease, as much as chemical treatments, and why it is essential to take charge of the individual as a whole and not just his disease, to obtain optimal results.
Mechanisms of action of stress on disease
Cortisol, a stress hormone, directly involved in the progression of the disease.
Stress has immediate effects on the endocrine system: during stress, cortisol increases and leads with it to an increase in the level of glucose in the blood. In the event of chronic stress or burnout, cortisol remains high, it no longer drops, which is quite deleterious for the body. Stress is not bad in itself, denying it, avoiding it is not recommended, but you have to be able to modulate it. Normally, cortisol is high in the morning and should drop during the day. Professor Spiegel found that women with breast cancer along with high daytime stress lived shorter lives than those with normal cortisol levels. He also found that depression is found to have high cortisol levels all the time, and depression for more than a year increases the risk of death. Conversely, in a state of post-traumatic stress, cortisol remains low all day, which is also harmful.
Cortisol is made to fluctuate, it is an adaptive hormone that allows us to face the difficulties of life, however its chronic use has harmful consequences on health. Professor Spiegel’s work has shown that stress has a major effect on the disease curve, and that it is as important to find new molecules that are always more effective than to help patients to modulate their stress. He established the link between cortisol and low levels of Natural Killers, these immune soldiers so important in the fight against cancer, and therefore the link between a cortisol level that does not vary during the day (which is the case in a burnout for example) and the increased risk of mortality.
Stress attacks even the embarrassment itself
It has recently been known, thanks to the recent discoveries of the Nobel Prize, that the telomere, the end of the chromosome, shortens with age. Telomere length and aging are directly related. Professor Spiegel was able to demonstrate that telomere length is also correlated with the rate of anxiety and stress. Recently, he was able to show that an alteration of the P53 protein by stress affected the elimination of immortal cells responsible for cancer.
Sleep, modulated by cortisol, a major tool in the recovery of the immune system
50% of cancer patients suffer from insomnia. However, good sleep is an essential element in the prevention of cancer and in its treatment. Professor Spiegel has established links between disturbed cortisol production and sleep disturbances, as well as between sleep disturbances and disease risks. It is the imbalances of the nervous system, of its sympathetic (mobilization) and parasympathetic (recovery) functions that affect the metabolism, immunity or the cardiovascular system. No area of the body escapes them, since they are all dependent on the nervous system.
Stress management tools
” Imagination is a quality which has been given to man to compensate for what he is not. The sense of humor was given to him to console him for who he is. “Oscar Wilde
Professor Spiegel has listed the best tools for combating stress related to illness:
- Sleep well at night and be active during the day, respect circadian rhythms;
- Practice daily physical activity;
- Express your emotions, accept them, get them accepted;
- Do not isolate yourself and benefit from social support;
- Learn to communicate with the medical profession;
- Use the existing therapeutic possibilities: antidepressants, transcranial stimulation, psychotherapies, if necessary in combination;
- Participate in support groups;
- Cultivate the bonds of friendship;
- Express your needs, know your priorities;
- Specify your discomfort: go from anxiety to fear, from depression to sadness, to specify, is to facilitate healing;
- To be supported by his family or to have them supported if necessary (married people have a higher survival rate);
- Make use of self-hypnosis, which works by focusing the concentration. It is actually the oldest psychotherapeutic technique in the West: it has been proven that we can change the perception, sensation and response of the brain to pain, for example, in particular by the ability to modify the anticipatory reaction. , which results in a quantifiable decrease in medication intake or anxiety. Mindfullness is also an interesting program; its practice helps to accept what is happening without judging, mobilizes our energies in the present (Full presence) which decreases anxiety, with a cascade of positive reactions on the neuroendocrine level.
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Raïssa Blankoff, naturopath-aromatherapist, www.naturoparis.com |
