Does Stress Cause Disease?
 

doubts about the applicability of this study
 

Hi, Becky -

Thanks for posting this link - though I believe it's been posted here previously. However, I'd like to reiterate my numerous objections to where this research is right now, and the premature conclusions that are being (IMO, wrongfully) drawn.

Dr. Sheldon Cohen, author of this JAMA study, is a psychologist, not an M.D. It stands to reason that he would guess at psychological etiology of diseases, rather than the plethora of other factors that MIGHT be more pertinent, like environmental toxins, worsened living conditions, more treatment-resistant organisms, compromised immune systems due to genetic factors, etc.

What I noticed, in reading the link you provided, is how many, many times Cohen qualifies his guesses with words like "might", "may", "could" - and the numerous times he admits that the verdict is still not in about which came first, the disease origin or the stress, and even whether the bio-chemical responses to stress that sometimes occur in humans are ultimately CAUSING diseases or exacerbation of disease symptoms.

I'm still very skeptical that this kind of guessing merits any credence at all - especially as pertains to breast cancer, when viral origin isn't even determined. Also, the whole idea that stress is bad for people has been refuted - a few times in studies of the effect of work stress on nurses - where it was found that those who reported moderate-to-severe stress were LEAST likely to develop breast cancer, even years later.
<http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/160/11/1079>

Secondly, why not do away with stress altogether, by better living through chemistry, if it's such a disease- causing factor in our lives? How 'bout legalizing marijuana, handing out Quaalude, Valium, Xanax, Ativan, Vicodin, even Versed to anyone who reports being under stress? Other than that many stressed-out, productive people would likely lose productivity, and others would be unmotivated to work on resolving their stress-inducing problems, maybe we could rechannel this "blame the victim" perspective.

For those of us on this list, who've already been dx'd with breast cancer, IMO it's really unhelpful to promulgate the notion that if we somehow got rid of the stress in our lives (often caused or increased by knowing we have the disease, or by undergoing noxious treatments & suffering mutilating surgeries and QOL- impeding side effects), we'd be enhancing our chances for recovery.

Thanks for providing the opportunity for another rebuttal.

(((hugs)))
Sandy in Silicon Valley