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Stress 'Can Cut the Risk of Getting Breast Cancer'

Posted on: Friday, 9 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

WOMEN coping with high levels of stress every day are less likely to develop breast cancer, doctors say.

Their study is the first to suggest there may be any health benefits for women exposed to regularly stressful situations, such as highflying careers and demanding work schedules.

In the 18-year study of more than 6,500 women, researchers found the more stress they experienced, the less the chances of being diagnosed with breast cancer.

There have been contradictory findings from previous research, with some saying daily stress levels make no difference while others say they increase the risk of the disease.

A report in the British Medical Journal today says stress may affect the body's metabolism of oestrogen, the female sex hormone linked with breast cancer.

As a result, hormone levels are suppressed in women under stress.

However, researchers at the National Institute of Public Health in Copenhagen point out that the downside is that regular stress can cause other problems, including heart disease.

Researcher Dr Naja Rod Nielsen said: 'Stress-induced disturbances (in the body) cannot be considered a healthy response. Prolonged stress may have harmful effects on a range of other diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases.' The researchers asked women aged 57 years on average who were taking part in a long-term health study what levels of stress they experienced routinely in their lives.

This was classified into either low, medium or high levels of stressrelated symptoms, such as tension, nervousness, anxiety and sleeplessness.

Around 7 per cent of women reported high stress intensity and 10 per cent said they were frequently under stress.

The researchers also took into account other factors such as whether the women had children or had entered the menopause, which would influence the risk of breast cancer.

However they did not consider risk factors such as family history of the disease or specifically look at whether women were employed and the kind of work they did.

Altogether 251 women were diagnosed with breast cancer during the 18-year study. The researchers calculated that women reporting high levels of stress were 40 per cent less likely to develop breast cancer than those reporting low levels of stress.

The researchers said: 'Among 6,689 women followed up for an average of 18 years, higher self-reported everyday stress was associated with a lower risk of breast cancer.' They also found for every increased level of stress based on a six-level scale women were eight per cent less likely to develop breast cancer.

They said one explanation might be that sustained levels of high stress affect oestrogen levels which over time could influence the risk of breast cancer. But they said this theory had never been tested, and research had mainly been restricted to animals.

Dr Sarah Rawlings, head of policy at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: 'It's always hard to measure the impact of stress on breast cancer risk as it's difficult to untangle from other factors in our lives and everyone views their own stress levels differently.

'This study doesn't help us to draw further conclusions.

'However, maintaining a healthy balanced lifestyle is important we know that high stress levels can lead to unhealthy behaviour, which may alter your risk of breast cancer and other diseases.' j.hope@dailymail.co.uk

Source: Daily Mail; London (UK)

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