Anonymous wrote:Our cat had cancer and she had a really nice and stressless life.

Hugs. My god is always letting out these huge sighs so I am thinking he somehow finds his life as a de facto ESA for our whole family stressful.

Stress might or might not have played a part in it, but there are numerous things that cause cancer. Not eating enough fiber, smoking, environmental factors, too many processed foods, living close to cellphone towers, radiation, etc. Plus, a combination of different things.

What about madoffs son who died of cancer due to stress of the trial?

My husband, who is the calmest person I know, has had two major cancers. Definitely not stress-induced.
OP, so sorry for your loss.

Anonymous wrote:Our cat had cancer and she had a really nice and stressless life.

how do you know?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, let’s blame cancer victims for their illness.

Huh? Some people have more life stress than others. Who said it was their fault? What an odd post.

DP. This is incredibly common subtext in cancer discussions, but sure. Go off.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, let’s blame cancer victims for their illness.

Huh? Some people have more life stress than others. Who said it was their fault? What an odd post.

PS: BRCA mutation

We can decrease our risks of cancer, but we can't prevent it. It's a matter of shifting the needle.

For example, excessive alcohol consumption is a far bigger risk factor for breast cancer than family history, but that doesn't mean those with the BRCS mutation can avoid cancer by avoiding alcohol and life stresses. Some of it is just going to happen anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, let’s blame cancer victims for their illness.

I had breast cancer and this is why I had to leave some support groups. It was NUTS.
“We got cancer because we ate too much sugar!”
“You got cancer because you ate processed foods.”
“I got cancer because my life is stressful!”
“Those plastic water bottles gave you cancer.”
The list is endless. And you absolutely cannot have rational conversation with people like this.
And don’t get me started on the natural treatments/supplements these people were into. I’m sorry - they didn’t save you. Modern medicine did.

.

People want to believe that they can do something to control or prevent bad life things. It's not just cancer - we blame poor people, divorced people, sexual assault and harassment victims, etc. All so we can engage in the belief that those things can't happen to us because we won't make the "mistakes" that those people did.

Bad shit happens. You can be living a normal life and get shot at the mall, hit by a bus, common down with a chronic disease or live in a society which suddenly collapses into authoritarianism or war.

The only thing you can do is live your life righteously in joy and make sure that you give and receive love.

Plan for your unavoidable eventual demise with legal documents - wills, power of attorney and health care powers, etc.

People who are under tremendous stress and trauma often don't have the emotional, administrative or financial bandwidth to keep up with regular healthcare appointments or follow up promptly on signs of disease. So, try to always put uour own oxygen mask on first when experiencing stress and trauma. - which is unavoidable in life.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, let’s blame cancer victims for their illness.

Even better, let's go for the newborns with retinoblastoma, the infants with neuroblastoma, and the toddlers with leukemia.

https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=retinoblastoma-in-children-90-P02742
https://www.stjude.org/disease/neuroblastoma.html
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/leukemia-in-children/about/what-is-childhood-leukemia.html

I know cancer cannot directly correlate this way based on experience with family and friends. I do suspect stress makes hair go gray based on personal experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, let’s blame cancer victims for their illness.

I had breast cancer and this is why I had to leave some support groups. It was NUTS.
“We got cancer because we ate too much sugar!”
“You got cancer because you ate processed foods.”
“I got cancer because my life is stressful!”
“Those plastic water bottles gave you cancer.”
The list is endless. And you absolutely cannot have rational conversation with people like this.
And don’t get me started on the natural treatments/supplements these people were into. I’m sorry - they didn’t save you. Modern medicine did.

+1. Stage four surviver checking in. What makes it amazing to me is the subtle hint in all of this that it was MY fault. HUP pulled me through, not green tea.

Largely PP was correct: you had underlying genes for it. Something turned them on. Maybe AI can narrow the list in 30 years but fools gold to try now.

you are more likely to have a heart attack from stress.

Remember when doctors used to think that stomach ulcers were caused by stress?

That was wrong and they aren't. Ulcers are most commonly caused by a bacterial infection or the misuse of NSAIDs.

Life, by its very nature, is stress. Our bodies are equipped to deal with a wide range of it. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming but those times are usually limited and our bodies move on.