Stress, Cancer and Hypnotherapy

A study in The Journal of Clinical Investigation looked into the effect that chronic stress has on ovarian cancer. Anil Sood, MD at the University of Texas implanted ovarian cancer cells into mice and then exposed them to stress. They found that the tumors grew more quickly.

Dr. Sood found that stress hormones activated a protein FAK (Focal Adhesion Kinase), the protein which protects cancer cells from the process of natural cell death, this allowed the cancer cells to spread and grow. Sood and his colleagues then looked to see if the same would hold with humans.

They looked at 80 cases of patients with ovarian cancer, and used the NIH’s Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale to group patients by stress levels.

They found patient stress, along with elevated stress hormones was associated with higher levels of activated FAK, quicker tumor growth, and faster mortality.

Good reason to use hypnotherapy to release old emotions that are not serving us.