Handling the Stress of Cancer

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Narrator
How can I deal with the stress of having cancer?

Julie Silver, MD
Stress, stress is not good for healing. There's no evidence that really supports that stress causes cancer, and some people really feel like, oh, if I'm stressed, my cancer will come back, and then that builds more stress. And the literature does not support that, the research does not support that, that stress causes cancer. But stress is not good for your body, and it's not good for healing. Stress does slow, for instance, wound healing. We know that for sure. So what I tell people is don't worry about stress, don't add more stress to the stress you have by worrying about it. Instead, try to figure out way to decrease your stress because it will help you to heal better, and it will give you a better life. And that includes meditation, maybe seeing a psychologist, imagery can be really helpful, exercise is great, eating well is helpful for stress, I mean there's lots of things that can be helpful for your stress level so do those things.