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A Clinician's Guide to Integrative OncologyLet’s Talk About Stress

A Clinician's Guide to Integrative Oncology: Let’s Talk About Stress [The ‘storage’ of emotions in the subconscious as well as within the physical body and its relationship to illness is one of the most important concepts that the clinician will need to impart to her/his patient, along with techniques to unload these stored emotions. There is evidence that stress is implicated in cancer initiation and progression, and there is a link between psychological distress such as anxiety and depression, and cancer. Depression is common in cancer patients, may be associated with increased cancer risk and may predict cancer progression. Loneliness and emotional repression have been linked to poorer cancer outcomes. On the cellular level, stress and depression influence the immune system, the endocrine system and the gut microbiome. Stress is able to activate the autonomic nervous system and the HPA axis and thereby alter the tumor microenvironment. Research suggests stress can interfere with the immune system and cancer surveillance in some cancers, as well as affect genes, damage DNA and impair genetic mutation repair and the ability of immune cells to initiate programmed cancer cell apoptosis. The gut microbiome has been found to affect neural, immunological and endocrine systems. The microbiome-gut-brain axis can modulate emotions and stress is able to modulate the microbiota. There is increasing evidence of the microbiota’s role in carcinogenesis. In the Ultimate Consultation, the clinician’s role is to help the patient with cancer understand the link between the mind, stress and those processes in the body that contribute to poor health. In understanding these links, the patient is in a better position to understand how they can make changes to reduce stress. The clinician can then guide the patient to a number of techniques that can help ‘unload’ stress and emotions that are stored within. These include stress management and social therapy, pet therapy, art and writing therapy and others.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Clinician's Guide to Integrative OncologyLet’s Talk About Stress

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Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Copyright
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017
ISBN
978-3-319-56631-3
Pages
9 –39
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-56632-0_2
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The ‘storage’ of emotions in the subconscious as well as within the physical body and its relationship to illness is one of the most important concepts that the clinician will need to impart to her/his patient, along with techniques to unload these stored emotions. There is evidence that stress is implicated in cancer initiation and progression, and there is a link between psychological distress such as anxiety and depression, and cancer. Depression is common in cancer patients, may be associated with increased cancer risk and may predict cancer progression. Loneliness and emotional repression have been linked to poorer cancer outcomes. On the cellular level, stress and depression influence the immune system, the endocrine system and the gut microbiome. Stress is able to activate the autonomic nervous system and the HPA axis and thereby alter the tumor microenvironment. Research suggests stress can interfere with the immune system and cancer surveillance in some cancers, as well as affect genes, damage DNA and impair genetic mutation repair and the ability of immune cells to initiate programmed cancer cell apoptosis. The gut microbiome has been found to affect neural, immunological and endocrine systems. The microbiome-gut-brain axis can modulate emotions and stress is able to modulate the microbiota. There is increasing evidence of the microbiota’s role in carcinogenesis. In the Ultimate Consultation, the clinician’s role is to help the patient with cancer understand the link between the mind, stress and those processes in the body that contribute to poor health. In understanding these links, the patient is in a better position to understand how they can make changes to reduce stress. The clinician can then guide the patient to a number of techniques that can help ‘unload’ stress and emotions that are stored within. These include stress management and social therapy, pet therapy, art and writing therapy and others.]

Published: Jul 25, 2017

Keywords: Stress; Depression; Anxiety; HPA axis; Gut microbiome

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