Interesting article : Meditating “can reduce spread of cancer?”
Interesting. Just sent to me, an article from yesterdays Daily Telegraph.
To be 100% clear, the below study is interesting, just that.
It is absolutely not a suggestion that TM (Transcendental Meditation) can cure or prevent cancer, sadly I know many long term practitioners of meditation (TM) who have died of cancer. Life is not that simple.
Nevertheless studies like this are most definitely of interest
Meditating can reduce spread of cancer
By Joe Pinkstone
Cancer patients should meditate every morning and evening to make the disease less likely to spread scientists say.
Twice daily attempts to reduce stress could help prevent cancer cells becoming more robust, harder to treat and more likely to spread, a study has found.
Levels of cortisol the chemical produced when a person is stressed, fluctuate throughout the day. However, in cancer patients they remain persistently high. Research presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual conference in Phoenix, found that cancer cells exposed to cortisol undergo changes to their genes and behave differently. As a result the researchers say that patients should reduce stress “as much as they can”
Suggested methods of lowering stress include, “exercise, get outside in nature, engage in mindfulness practices like journaling, meditation or deep breathing, eat a healthy diet, give back to others, get enough sleep.”
Dr Kimberley Bussey, a cancer specialist at Midwestern University, who worked on the research said : “as for time of day there are arguments to be made for starting and ending the day with practices that reduce stress and promote quality sleep.
“In the morning those practices can support a resiliant mental state that helps us manage daily stress better.
“At night those same types of practices can help us relax and facilitate getting quality sleep.” The research found that cortisol permanently increases the “stemness” of cancer cells, which is a measure of how adaptable they are to change” Data also shows that cortisol makes cancer cells better able to spread to different tissues and survive treatment with some chemotherapy drugs
