Stress is believed to be a cause of breast cancer by many Australian women who have been diagnosed with the disease.
Dr. Christine Bennett, chairwoman of the Bupa Health Foundation, and Robin Bell, deputy director of the Women's Health Program at Monash University's Alfred Hospital, and their team of researchers surveyed 1,500 Australian breast cancer survivors.
They found that 58 percent claim stress was a factor in their breast cancer diagnosis, 17 percent blame hormone therapies, 10 percent attributed it to family history, and two percent credit lifestyle choices, such as diet and exercise.
"While the exact causes of breast cancer are unknown, there is no scientific evidence that points to stress as a cause of breast cancer," Bennett says in a statement. "Reducing stress may be good for general health, but it's not a way of reducing the risk of breast cancer. By maintaining a healthy weight, maintaining a good diet and taking regular exercise we can all reduce the risk of breast cancer and other types of cancers as well."
The study showed that there was absolutely no link between stress levels and risk of breast cancer. It did, however, show that women who are diagnosed with breast cancer tend to reevaluate their lifestyle and overall health, which proves to be beneficial.
With the exception of skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the U.S. in 2007, the most recent year from which statistics are available, over 202,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer and over 40,000 women died from it.
The study was funded by the Bupa Health FoundationSteering Committee.
