Men Who Suffer From Long-Term Stress Are At Risk of Cancer

Stress is truly a slow and silent killer. It has significant negative impacts on health, especially on men including higher risk of heart disease and less healthy sperms. Now, a new study suggests long-term stress increases the risk of cancer in men.

One Japanese study says long-term stress appear to increase cancer risk in men by up 20% than stress-free men. The details of the study¹ are available and published in Nature.

The Study

Japanese researchers monitored 79,301 men and women with ages ranging from 40-69. This is a long-term study covering between years 1990 and 2012, which is 22 years of observation.

The team of researchers with members from NCC(National Cancer Center) surveyed participants about their stress levels. Researchers asked the participants on two occasions; first, the participants were asked once during the beginning of the survey and once five years later.

What they found were men who reported on both occasions with high stress have 19% higher stress levels than those who responded no stress on both occasions.

Moreover, men who responded they have moderate to little stress at the beginning of the survey but higher stress 5 years later were 20% at risk of cancer than those who responded none on both occasions.

Which Cancers Which Men Are At Risk?

Among the male participants who were polled, 12,486 have developed cancer. The researchers stated that stress on these men increases their risk of liver and prostate cancer.

In 2017, prostate cancer claims close to 27,000 lives in the U.S. alone while liver cancer claims close to 29,000 lives.

Clearly, the statistics show that both cancers are serious threats. Moreover, a survey says that stress statistics in the U.S. has gone up from 4.8 in 2016 to 5.1 in 2017 based on a 10 point scale.

What Can You Do?

Certainly, there are things that you can do to minimize stress. You can’t eliminate stress but what you can do is keep it a minimal at a level in which it does not have negative impacts on your health.

Ancient practices such as yoga and tai-chi are among the most natural ways of managing stress at a very minimal level.

Another simple way is to walk barefoot on the earth. This simple and natural method is known as grounding. Hence, when you have the chance to walk on the beach, grass or soil, do so as it has tremendous benefits on reducing stress.

For those who often travel, taking your partner’s piece of clothing and sniffing it while away has also been found helpful in reducing stress.

Lastly, double check your diet. Make sure you’re minimizing added sugar consumption and focus more on eating mood-boosting foods. Sticking to a good nutrition plan is helpful in boosting your brain’s production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that makes you feel good.