Stress Raises Breast Cancer Risk
If you’ve had an especially stressful life event lately, you may be at increased risk for breast cancer. When a team of researchers from Ben-Gurion University compared 225 women younger than 45 years of age who had breast cancer to 367 healthy women of comparable age, they discovered that two or more “severe life events” increased the risk of breast cancer by 62 percent. Dr. Ronit Peled, head of the study, described losing a parent, close relative, or spouse; or divorce of parents before age 20, as “severe life events.”
Other researchers have also found a link between stressful life events and increased risk for the recurrence of breast cancer. For example in a study of 94 patients with breast cancer, those who experienced a traumatic event remained cancer-free an average of 30 months; those who had less stressful life events were cancer-free for 37 months; and those without a severe or moderate stressful life event were cancer-free for 60 months.
Stress Hormones and Breast Cancer
Ongoing stress can threaten breast-health, in large part, because it disrupts the natural daily natural rhythm of circulating hormones.
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the best way to eliminate breast cancer risk (eliminate - not reduce) is to breast feed for at least one year.
Chella,
Thank you for writing! Can you give us your sources on this?
unfortunately the only sources are anecdotal. Perhaps Dr. Scherwitz can help - does he know of even one single case of breast cancer in a woman who has breast-fed for longer than six months? I'm sure he will agree that there are no such cases on record. Because studies linking breast cancer risk to breastfeeding are not available and have never been done under the scientific method (since there is no funding available for such a study), the truth is that women will need to check with their own inner wisdom on this issue. Formula companies are quite active in opposition to this theory, for economic reasons. Nestle in particular is guilty of suppressing this anecdotal wisdom - they are more interested in their bottom line, than they are in promoting health for women and babies.