Beat That Stress!

Three mental health professionals discuss how stress affects both mind and body (particularly in terms of cancer), and provides strategies for stress management that everyone can use.

- Mok Shi-lynn

We all experience some degree of stress. While we are aware that stress can be unpleasant and can lead to health problems, some kinds of stress are actually good for you! When you play sports, perform physical exercise or ride a roller coaster, for example, you experience ‘beneficial’ stress.

Unfortunately, the stress that Malaysian women often experience is not the good kind. According to integrative psychotherapist Dr Lennie Soo, Malaysian women in general experience a high degree of chronic stress. “We women take a lot upon ourselves. We take care of the kids, the spouse, the household, the finances, our parents, our work… we put others above ourselves, we multitask and we think we are Superwoman,” Dr Soo tells us. And she believes that chronic stress is causing the development and metastasis of cancer in women who do not have a family history of cancer.

“Stress is bad for cancer patients because it affects your immune system,” Dr Soo says. “When your immune system is compromised, everything else in your body starts to fall apart.”

Cortisol is our body’s main stress hormone and is important for a number of functions in our body, including inducing our body’s ‘fight or flight’ mode in times of crisis. However, too much of it – which occurs when we are under constant stress – can lead to numerous problems. Cortisol has also been implicated in the development of cancer and can delay recovery, according to Dr Soo.