Although a previous study found that many women blamed their breast cancer on stress, a new study in the British Medical Journal has linked high stress levels to a lower risk of breast cancer. The researchers said that high levels of daily stress appear to result in a lower risk of developing breast cancer for the first time. The Danish study ran over 18 years and tracked the lives of more than 6,000 women. The researchers asked the women what levels of stress - tension, nervousness, impatience, anxiety, or sleeplessness - they experienced and classified the results into low, medium and high levels. The results were adjusted to allow for other factors, such as whether they had children or whether they were menopausal, which can influence the development of breast cancer. The study did not, however, take into account the risk factor from mutated BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
Over the study period, 251 women were diagnosed with first-time breast cancer. The researchers found that the women reporting high levels of stress were 40 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than women reporting low levels of stress. The researchers go further, saying that for every increased level of stress on a six-level scale, women were 8 percent less likely to develop breast cancer.
The researchers suggest that the lowered risk may be due to sustained levels of high stress affecting estrogen levels. Estrogen levels are widely believed to have an influence on the development of breast cancer although this theory remains unproven.
So should we all be trying to put more stress into our daily lives? Not according to the researchers, who say that stress-induced changes in hormonal balances are not a healthy response, and continued stress may put women at risk of other serious illnesses.
