Esophageal diseases — Barrett's esophagus
Efficacy of liquid nitrogen cryotherapy for Barrett's esophagus after endoscopic resection of intramucosal cancer.
Efficacy of liquid nitrogen cryotherapy for Barrett's esophagus after endoscopic resection of intramucosal cancer.
Efficacy of liquid nitrogen cryotherapy for Barrett's esophagus after endoscopic resection of intramucosal cancer.
Researchers noted the safety and efficacy of cryotherapy-ablation with liquid nitrogen in patients with Barrett's esophagus (BE) and intramucosal esophageal cancer and assessed progression to invasive disease despite therapy.
Endoscopic resection of the affected mucosa followed by endoscopic cryotherapy is an effective method for eradicating Barrett's esophagus dysplasia for intramucosal esophageal tumors. In this high-risk group, the development of invasive cancer was low when this treatment tactic was applied.
How chronic stress contributes to the spread of cancer cells and what to do about it
Author — Joseph Mercola
Psychological stress can cause enormous damage to your health. The reason for such an impact on health is stress's ability to provoke inflammatory processes, which are a hallmark of many diseases, from obesity and diabetes to cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Six years ago I had the opportunity to talk with Donald ("Donnie") Yance, a world-renowned herbalist and nutritionist, who shared with me amazing information: stress as a cause of cancer development was considered as early as 1908. Donnie recounted the following:
"Eli Jones, a magnificent herbalist physician who worked on the cancer problem and probably one of the most brilliant people who ever lived, wrote the book 'Cancer — its Causes, Symptoms and Treatment' in 1908. I could not find a single inaccuracy in this book written more than 100 years ago."
In this book, Dr. Jones characterized the main causes of cancer, and the number 1 cause on his list was stress. Since then, many studies have only confirmed this hypothesis.
Chronic stress contributes to the spread of cancer cells
A recent study on mice established that when animals are in a state of chronic stress, their lymphatic system underwent changes, causing cancer cells to spread with greater speed and ease. Science Alert magazine reports the following:
"Although this research has not yet been done on humans, it is already a huge step toward understanding how stress — which has long been linked to the spread of cancer — actually contributes to the survival of malignant cells.
"We do not by any means doubt that a person who has just been diagnosed with cancer is already under stress, since such a situation by itself is one of the most stressful..." — says Erica Sloan of Monash University, Australia, in an interview for ABCNews.
"The main question is how to care for cancer patients, since research shows that stress not only has a negative impact on their well-being, but also affects tumor growth inside their bodies".
How does stress contribute to the spread of cancer cells?
As a rule, cancer cells spread to other areas in the human body, moving either through blood vessels or through the lymphatic system. Stress hormones damage both of these systems and channels. In this study, scientists tried to establish how stress hormones participate in the spread of cancer cells through the lymphatic system.
They managed to identify a mechanism that allows adrenaline to trigger the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) to increase the rate of lymph formation. Adrenaline also causes physical changes in lymphatic vessels, allowing cancer cells to move to other parts of the body at high speed.
Specialists from the National Cancer Institute previously stated that this study, conducted on an animal model, allows the following conclusions to be drawn:
"Our body's neuroendocrine response (the release of hormones into the blood in response to nervous system stimulation) can directly introduce changes into important processes inside cells that help protect the body from the formation of cancer cells, such as DNA repair and regulation of cell growth".
Another study showed that the stress hormone norepinephrine can contribute to accelerating the growth of cancer cells.
Norepinephrine can stimulate the production of two components by tumor cells (matrix metalloproteinase, MMP-2 and MMP-9), which destroy tissues around tumor cells, allowing them to enter the bloodstream more easily.
Once in the bloodstream, these cells can move to other organs and tissues, and also form new tumors.
Norepinephrine can also stimulate the release of a chemical by tumor cells (vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF), which promotes the growth of blood vessels that feed cancer cells. This can also lead to accelerated growth and spread of cancer cells.
This means that emotional stress can both influence the course of cancer disease and reduce the effectiveness of treatment.
Work-related stress increases the risk of cardiovascular disease
It is quite obvious that psychological stress can damage your heart. As described in the documentary "Of Heart and Mind", your heart contains neurons similar to those of the brain, and your heart and brain are closely connected, creating a symbiotic unity.
One of the factors causing significant stress for many people is their work and, according to a recent study, there is a dose-dependent effect — a ratio between the number of working hours per week and the risk of cardiovascular disease. Here is a quote from The New York Times:
"Scientists managed to establish that, adjusted for age, gender, income level and other factors, each additional working hour per week over 10 years corresponds to a 1 percent increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Compared to work taking 45 hours per week, working 55 hours increases the risk by 16 percent, 60 hours — by 35 percent, 65 hours — by 52 percent, and 70 hours — by 74 percent.
Working 75 hours or more doubles the risk of cardiovascular problems — angina, coronary disease, hypertension, stroke or heart attack".
Does stress disrupt the work of the adrenal gland?
Chronic stress can cause overstrain of the adrenal glands, which can lead to adrenal fatigue. Hormones produced by the adrenal gland control numerous bodily functions, including the "fight or flight" function in response to stress.
When adrenal fatigue occurs, your psychological resilience under stress may fail or completely break down, making you hypersensitive to the slightest stress that would not normally harm you.
Anxiety and panic attacks are often a sign that you need adrenal support. Common factors subjecting the adrenal glands to excessive stress are:
There are many ways to assess adrenal function. The most common of these include 24-hour urine analysis, regular saliva collection, or blood testing. For most people, regular urine collection is the most effective test. You simply urinate on a test strip at certain times during a 24-hour period; dry these strips and send them to a laboratory for analysis.
While mild forms of adrenal insufficiency can be treated with herbs and dietary supplements such as B and C vitamins, CoQ10, astragalus and milk thistle, more advanced stages of this disease may require taking small doses of hormones such as DHEA, pregnenolone, cortisol, testosterone, progesterone and/or estrogen.
Conquer stress with energy psychology
Since psychological stress plays such an important role in our health, the ability to manage emotions is an extremely important part of a healthy lifestyle. Stress is inevitable in the lives of most people, however it is important to understand that the main thing is how you deal with it, which determines whether this stress is transformed into health problems afterwards or not.
As noted in a recent article on stress published in The New York Times, the stress response should dissipate as soon as possible after the danger has passed. The scientific term for this is resilience — "the body's ability to quickly return to a normal state, both physical and emotional, after a stressful situation".
Stress management tools such as breathing exercises can help you develop greater psychological resilience to stress. Another common method is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
This is an energy psychology method that helps reprogram your body's responses to daily stress, thereby reducing the chances of disease. This method is similar to acupuncture and is based on the idea that life energy flows through the body along invisible channels called meridians.
EFT stimulates various points on the meridians of your body by pressing them with fingertips while simultaneously using individually formulated verbal affirmations. These exercises can be performed independently or under the supervision of a qualified therapist.
In this way, you can reprogram how your body responds to sources of emotional stress. Since such stress factors are usually associated with physical problems, many people have also experienced relief from disease symptoms or their complete disappearance.
Reframing stressful situations
Researchers have identified four factors that determine the strength of the body's stress response; practitioners sometimes use the acronym "N.U.T.S." when referring to them:
One of the psychological methods that helps change the reaction to a stressful situation is known as "reframing". As Chris Kresser, a licensed acupuncturist interested in functional disorder medicine and stress reduction principles, noted:
"Let's say you lost your job. If you perceive this event as confirmation of your inadequacy and a sign that you will never achieve success, I think you can imagine how your body will respond (don't expect anything good!). But what if you look at the loss of a job as an opportunity to achieve a long-standing dream that you have not paid attention to, and as a chance to start everything from scratch?
In this case, job loss is unlikely to lead to the formation of a harmful stress response and may even become a source of 'eustress', or positive stress.
I am not arguing that it is possible or even desirable to find positive moments in tragic or terrible events. But if you find that you are unable to cope with any minor daily troubles that are part of the lives of most of us, reframing can be an effective way to eliminate the consequences of such stress exposure".
Tips and recommendations for reframing
Other stress management techniques
Sleep: Sleep deprivation does enormous damage to your body's ability to cope with stress and is another factor contributing to heart attack, so adequate sleep is an important condition for any successful stress management program
Tai chi and qigong: Despite limited supporting evidence, the results of one 2014 meta-analysis showed that tai chi helps alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety, improve psychological well-being and is overall a good means of managing stressful situations
Boris Grinblat (MedAlternativa.info) visits Den-TV
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