Could Resentment be a Risk Factor for Cancer?
It’s hard to imagine that our own thoughts or emotions could have any real affect on creating disease, but that’s just what author and teacher Louise Hay—and many others—believe.
Ms. Hay asserts that disease is caused by mental thought patterns—particularly patterns of criticism, anger, resentment, and guilt. In her book, Heal Your Body, she talks about different diseases and the mental patterns associated with them. When she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, she put her money where her mouth was, and embarked on a regiment of therapy, (as well as nutrition and reflexology), working through her own resentments over being raped when she was 5 years old. She says she rid herself of the cancer.
Holistic healer Poorvi Mittal writes that while running a small homeopathic practice, she treated many people suffering from various types of cancer, and found that what they all had in common was tremendous anger and resentment. “The body, like everything else in life,” she says, “is a mirror of our inner thoughts—it is always talking to us. We must listen to it.”
In a presentation made to the Q.E. Hospital Birmingham U.K. oncology nurses, James Middleton said, “Cancer patients often have unresolved resentments…We experience stress not only when we go through the experience which created the resentment, but we re-experience it each time we recall the event, or experience a similar event. This locked-in or long-term stress and tension can produce inhibition of the body’s natural defenses.”
Are there any studies supporting these ideas? Researchers at Stanford University showed that women who repressed their emotions were more likely to show disruptions in stress hormones—disruptions that predicted early death in women with breast cancer in earlier studies. The Journal of Psychosomatic Research found that extreme suppression of anger was the most common characteristic among 160 breast cancer patients. (Resentment is often described as a form of anger.) And recent studies at the Public Health Institute in California confirm that hostility and resentment tear down the immune system and increase risk of heart attack, cancer, and diabetes.
“So many diseases, like heart disease and cancer, can be triggered by unresolved resentment,” writes Lori Radun, CEC and certified life coach. “By choosing to forgive, you can dramatically improve your emotional and physical health.”
Indeed, it seems forgiveness is the solution to resentment. A new study from Duke University Medical Center showed that among people with chronic back pain, those who had forgiven others had lower levels of pain than those who hadn’t forgiven. According to Dr. Everett Worthington Jr., psychology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, “Chronic unforgiveness causes stress. Every time people think of their transgressor, their body responds. Now, if you can forgive, that can actually strengthen your immune system.”
If you feel you may be holding on to some resentment and want to let it go, try the following steps. You can also try the “Resentment Release Worksheet” provided at growbeyondcancer.com.
1. Recognize that forgiveness doesn’t deny the other person’s responsibility for hurting you. Rather, it’s a way to help you feel better, and to safeguard your own health and peace of mind.
2. Face and release the anger that you feel. Talk about it with trusted people, spend time journaling, and or pray about it.
3. Write a letter to your perpetrator. Pour out every emotion you feel. Tell her everything she did to hurt you and make you angry. Don’t hold anything back. When you’re done, burn or bury the letter as a symbol that you are ready to move on. Do not give the letter to the person.
4. Make a choice to forgive, and see if you can reconnect to the love in your heart. Realize that everyone makes mistakes, and try to find understanding for why the person did what he did.
5. Try to look for anything good in your experience. Did it make you stronger? Increase your resilience? Expand your understanding?
Have you been able to forgive someone who wronged you, and let go of a long-standing resentment? Please share your story.
Photo courtesy insk0r via Flickr.com.
Britta,
This kind of headline and thinking does a great disservice to the 28 million men and women worldwide who are affected by cancer.
If resentment indeed were a risk factor for cancer then why not preemptively engage women in 12-steps programs BEFORE they are diagnosed? This is ridiculous. If bad moods made cancer then we could all take antidepressants and be cancer free. If only cancer were so easy!
I have lost friends, relatives, and countless others to cancer and it had nothing to do with resentment. It had to do with the biology of cancer.c
I’d really like to see Louise Hay or any of these “life coaches” who are quoted talk to the women with metastatic cancer that I’ve been meeting recently. It’s possible they — those with all the theories, not the survivors — might learn something. —
Jody
Jody,
Your comment reveals your passion for this issue, and I understand that completely. Believe me, I have noticed the over-emphasis on “positive thinking” in the cancer culture lately, and I would never tell people to ignore or try not to feel their negative emotions (or “bad moods,” as you called them). On the contrary, I have written about the importance of expressing these emotions, and that’s what I wanted to convey in this post. Scientific studies have shown that “repressed” emotions—like resentment—can and do have negative affects on the body. It’s not feeling or having these emotions that can cause health effects, but holding onto them, or failing to express them. Researchers don’t expect a link only with cancer, by the way—much has been written about repressed emotions and heart disease. In fact, Dr. Ornish (famous author/cardiovascular physician) has had great success rehabilitating heart attack victims with a program that addresses not only their diet and exercise habits, but their repressed emotions such as anger and resentment.
I do not—nor would I ever—encourage cancer patients or anyone with health problems to blame themselves for their illnesses. We all know that cancer and other diseases don’t develop because of one thing. It’s a myriad of contributors that result in the disease finally erupting in the body. My point here is that science has shown that repressed emotions can raise your risk. If that’s the case, why should we avoid talking about it? We talk about how science has shown that a high-fat diet can contribute to disease, and how a sedentary lifestyle can contribute to disease. Does that mean we should blame ourselves if we eat too many hamburgers and then we get cancer? Of course not. But neither should we ignore the possibility that our diet could have been a contributing factor.
My hope is that people will read this article and realize that disease is related to the entire body—our diets, our activity levels, and yes, how we handle our emotions. All of these can all contribute to how well we feel. This only makes sense, right? As to the headline, I want to get people thinking about this issue—could resentment be a risk factor? Science says it could. If we want to lower our risk of cancer, shouldn’t we be aware of this? Talk about it? Try to do something about it?
And in truth, I think your idea about engaging women in a 12-step program before they’re diagnosed would be great! Too many of us know next to nothing about how to handle our emotions. (When did we ever have a class on it in school? Never!) Learning more about that could only be beneficial to our health, don’t you agree?
I know cancer affects so many people and causes so much loss, and I feel for the loss you’ve experienced in your life. Trust me, I’ve been there, too. My goal is to share information on ALL the possible risks, even if talking about some of them feels uncomfortable.
I greatly appreciate your comment. Talking and debating about these things is what this blog is all about!
Sending you light and love,
Britta
This article helped me so much, thank you:) As a survivor it is so important for me to see the ways in which I can change in order to become bigger.
I did take an inventory of my life when I was going through treatment and I decided I was going to clean up the ways of being that weren’t serving me, and resentment was definitely one of them! I used to hold people to very high standards and constantly felt hurt and resentment towards those who meant me no harm. Now I have lightened up a bit and know that people are doing the best they can.
I know some people get offended at this part of the process, that part of digging deep and effecting lasting change, but it’s necessary. Looking deep has nothing to do with blaming the survivor, quite the opposite, it’s about empowering him/her. Looking at how your behaviors contribute to your life is the remedy that will truly heal you on a deep level. I have been a survivor for nine years, have done tons of research, etc. and one thing Im sure of, is that cancer is caused by our thoughts and ways of being more than anything else. And this is great news! If you have the courage to change, you can create a life of sizzling health!
well I think this is crap. I just read a long science based study that contradicts what this book purports is fact. certainly stress is an unpleasant and difficult way to live one’s life and diminishes the daily quality of life but does not influence mortality or contribute to development of cancerous timings. Just another way to blame the patient.
I admit to having somewhat ambivalent feelings towards the positive self talk brigade. While I can see the benefits of maintaining a positive attitude in life, I also see how for many it can quickly turn into the “tyranny of positive thinking”, serving only to make them feel even worse.
I have written many times on my own blog of societal expectations of cancer patients to be upbeat, stoic and positive all the time and how it can serve to make some cancer patients feel like they are letting themselves and others down by not acting positive all the time. And what of the school of thought which claims that positive thinking can actually cure cancer and conversely that your negativity or hopelessness is a contributing cause of the disease. How much damage has that done?
Research published last year in the Jouranl of Psychological Science showed that repeating positive affirmations can actually have the opposite effect on some people. Psychologists found that individuals with low self-esteem actually felt worse about themselves after repeating positive self-statements.
Now I am not saying that we should all abandon positive self talk, and yes, for some people affirmations are a wonderful aid to good mental health, but what I am saying is this pressure to feel positive all the time can also be damaging if it becomes another stick to beat ourselves with.
Britta,
We’re mixing eggs and apples: what constitutes a legitimate risk factor for cancer that is based on solid science, on one hand, and individual choices (“wellness”)to help prevent, then support survivorship.
Dr. Dean Ornish is a wonderful example. I heard him speak about his work with early prostate cancer survivors at MD Anderson. His problem of diet, exercise and meditation showed significant results and I blogged about this last year: http://womenwcancer.blogspot.com/2010/04/dean-ornish-on-sustainable-lifestyle.html. His studies showed how healthy interventions changed the course of disease. I support that totally and always will. It’s how I live. Ask the women who read my blog.
I also know plenty of extraordinary, health-conscious men an women, thick in their lives working and raising families who were empowered, actualized people and are now in cemataries. If cancer were as simple as changing our thoughts children wouldn’t get cancer, nor would babies. It’s really, really easy, after we’ve done our own work following diagnosis to feel our success will work for everyone. It doesn’t. It isn’t simply about courage to change. Cancer is more complicated than that.
Best,
Jdy
Thanks for dedicating so much time to finding information, and writing about it. Whether we agree with the info or not, at least there is someone willing to share it. We are all able to do our own research on the topic and make informed decisions, but many people choose to sit back and wait for someone to find an easy explanation and cure all, when in reality cancer is a complicated subject that needs to be looked at from all angles. There are many insightful studies and articles that may not have “the answer”, but at least we live in a society that is now willing to attempt to dissect this disease rather than ignore it as in years past.
Thanks for all you do!
I lost my mother to Cancer. She began smoking almost immediately after my father died. Although he honorably died saving ‘other’ kids in a fire as a passerby- she held some resentment for being left with four kids to raise on her own. “There is an age old saying,
“It’s not the thing itself you should fear, but the mother, the parent!”
Smoking didn’t cause the cancer-what caused the smoking did. Smoking, drinking, drugging and emotional eating are all symptoms of negative emotions which anger, hate or resentment can all be considered”.
Robert Bly, “The body is the Canvas of the Subconscious!”
I don’t so much subscribe to the positive self-talk or affirmations so much as subconscious uprooting of negative emotions and reprogramming. Until the talk takes root in our subconscious- in spite of and in the face of disease- prevention and especially cure are difficult. I know people who have beat cancer more so by embracing it and its possible co-causes be they emotional, bad dieting – emotional eating-
(I.e. Fatty, Sugary Foods!), drinking etc. At the root of it are the emotions which we now know can either if positive, positively or if negative, negatively “change” our DNA, while we are alive even within a few years.
Cancer, simply put is you vs. you! This is also what the Chinese call Anger, Hate and Stress.
Psychological Supplementing through Affirmations may indeed help however the inner work, the exercises, if you will, still must be done. Illness and Great health are gradations and increments on the same scale as are positive and negative thought patterns which lead to positive or negative feelings which lead to positive or negative actions like smoking, drinking or eating to cover up hate, anger and resentment.
Deeper, unexpressed emotional and libidinal energies, unreleased were discovered to be a cause of cancer about 75 year’s age. Take a look at “The Biopathy of Cancer” by Wilhelm Reich.
In closing, I leave you all with a Rumi quote, “The Elixir is I the Poison!”
While sometimes its easy to get caught up in the different lifestyle choices that may lead to cancer, it does not mean that they led to cancer in your situation. Every person is unique. Every person’s body can combat things at varying degrees throughout their life. It is important to not blame yourself for cancer. You can make cancer a completely miserable experience, but you cannot make cancer. The best advice I have, is to focus on what you can do and what you can control. Accept that each day is different and don’t be hard on yourself.
Wow Britta! I just happened upon this post and find it and the resulting discussion so important.
My first comment is that I believe it’s a mistake to talk about cancer as if it’s one animal. Just as there are many contributing factors that can predispose people to developing cancer, there are many, many types of cancer. I think some readers have misunderstood you, as you repeatedly make it clear that our emotional state, and especially any state of CHRONIC stress, can contribute to an internal environment in which cancerous cells are better able to survive and proliferate (note the difference between that long statement and the single verb “cause). This a fact well-known to the medical science community. No one, including you, is stating that bad moods cause cancer or the converse, good moods prevent cancer. Chronic stress leads to chronic inflammation in the body, compromising the immune system, which surely has to impact our risk of developing cancer. Some of the most promising breast cancer vaccines are in fact empowering our immune systems to better fight the cancer cells.
I find the comment suggesting that babies being born with or developing cancer disproves any potential link between chronic emotional stress and predisposition to cancer interesting. Again, there are so many factors that predispose us to cancer. One of them would certainly be what we’re exposed to in utero, not just environmental toxins but including the stress chemicals circulating in our mothers’ bodies.
Again, I think some of your readers are having a hard time hearing what you are saying and I sense that their own emotions are getting in the way. I have often written and spoken out about the “tyranny of positive thinking” promoted in the cancer community. That over-used line, “cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me,” the big line that gets all of our cancer poster women on the magazine covers. That, I resent, but instead of just stewing in my resentment, I process it by writing and sharing my feelings.
I think you’ve highlighted a super important topic here for anyone interested in understanding disease or pursuing a lifestyle that promotes good health. Just because I’m BRCA positive does not mean my cancer risk boils down to genetics. Quite on the contrary, I cannot go back and exchange my genes. Instead, I strive to control those factors impacting my health over which I have control. You are right-on to encourage others to do the same.
Best to you!
Susan
Susan, Its great to get your feedback. Thank you! There are so many aspects to cancer, as you mentioned and I just wanted to point to the emotional state and suppression of feelings and how that impacts our health and immune system. That’s all. This blog is all about educating and creating awareness about toxicity and potentially harmful substances and ingredients. To me, emotional imbalance, stress burden and unprocessed emotions, can be a source of toxicity we don’t often think about. I agree that this topic needs more exposure and there needs to be more dialogue in order to understand disease as a whole. Thank you again and best to you, Britta