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Stress can make you fat, and it can do a lot WORSE things too–it can make your cancer spread faster. Chronic stress acts as a sort of fertilizer that feeds the spread of breast cancer. Researchers have discovered that stress is biologically reprogramming the immune cells that are trying to fight the cancer, transforming them from soldiers protecting the body into aiders and abettors. They found a 30-fold increase in cancer spread throughout the bodies of stressed mice compared to those that were not stressed. Researcher Steven Cole agrees and says, "This study is not saying that stress causes cancer, but it does show that stress can help support cancer once it has developed.read more

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Stress can make you fat and fat can make you sick.

A new study shows that social stress can lead to heart disease by causing the body to deposit more fat in the abdominal cavity, speeding the harmful buildup of plaque in blood vessels, a stepping stone to the number one cause of death in the world. If we’re stressed, we tend to overeat, and that’s the start of the problem.

Researcher Carol A. Shively says, “We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Much of the excess fat in many people who are overweight is located in the abdomen, and that fat behaves differently than fat in other locations. If there’s too much, it can have far more harmful effects on health than fat located in other areas.”
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Stressed? Most of us are at one time or another, and the last thing we need is for our immune systems to let us down during busy times. But if you’re under stress, you’ll get sick more often. And if you get Swine Flu, you may have to deal with the military: the Defense Dept. wants to establish regional teams of soldiers to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall.

On the CNN website, Barbara Starr reports on a plan to have the military work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Since by “military,” we assume they mean the National Guard, the question is: can they spare them from the wars we’re fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan?
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The US Department of Homeland Security’s color-coded system for warning the public of the risk of a terrorist attack may be causing the general public a lot of stress, but it does NOT put too much stress on law enforcement officers?no matter what it’s doing to the rest of us. Basically, these days we could all use a good laugh, and yoga teachers know how to give us one.

It turns out it REALLY IS the best medicine. (To see people practicing “Laughter Yoga,” click here. Researchers have found that simply anticipating a laughter experience boosts health-protecting hormones. Researcher Lee Berk says, “Our findings lead us to believe that by seeking out positive experiences that make us laugh we can do a lot with our physiology to stay well.”
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