Latest / Intellectual Medicine / Can Stress Make Prostate Cancer Worse? The Truth About Fear and Cancer

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Can Stress Make Prostate Cancer Worse? The Truth About Fear and Cancer · Intellectual Medicine

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  The first thing somebody does when they get diagnosed with
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  cancer is become stressed. But is that really bad?
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  You know, if you're thinking about death, you're thinking
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  about cancer. You're robbing your moment.
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  The cancer is beating you twice. You do not want to die twice.
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  All right, So we know stress is bad, and it's bad if you have
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  cancer. They tell you to relax and not
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  to stress. How do you do that?
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  The first thing somebody does when they get diagnosed with
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  cancer has become stressed. But is that really bad?
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  We're going to talk about that. Is there good stress, bad
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  stress? How do we diminish it?
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  Does it affect our immune system and make cancer more likely to
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  progress? So I'm going to break down some
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  fallacies. First of all, stress is
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  necessary, constructive, and helpful.
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  It motivates action. If you are stressed because you
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  have an exam in a week, that ain't bad.
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  It's going to be helpful to make you study.
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  If you don't study, then that is ignorance on your part and the
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  stress will amplify. Take it to a job performance or
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  a game or a future event. It's stressful to think about.
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  I don't know, a 50th class year reunion?
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  Am I going to show up looking old and dumpy?
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  Maybe it'll motivate. So stress can motivate.
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  When you feel pressure, when you feel stress, think of it as a
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  signal. The outside world is creating a
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  stimulus that is creating internal stress.
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  Remember, the stress is always an internal response to an
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  external stimulus. So I never want you to point
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  your finger and say, well of course I'm stressed.
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  Look at what my spouse did, of course I'm stressed, my boss.
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  No, no, those are stimuli. OK, let's talk about how you
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  respond to that. So you've been told you have
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  cancer. The stress hits you lesson #1
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  don't worry about being stressed.
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  You're supposed to be stressed. You just told you were just told
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  you had cancer. When faced with stress, the
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  first thing you do is pause, unless the stress is coming from
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  a car barreling at you, then you move.
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  But in general, particularly in regards specifically to prostate
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  cancer, really almost any cancer, you have time, but
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  prostate in particular, do not let a doctor, a urologist or
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  neighbor, a friend and aunt, a relative tell you you have to
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  make a decision fast. This thing can explode.
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  Tick, tick, tick. It's not that way.
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  The most important thing to do is make a good decision.
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  The stress should help motivate you to ask questions, to seek
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  answers, not to just go and do the first thing you're told.
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  Look, you've all bought cars. I hope some point it can be
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  stressful. You go to a lot, They're pushing
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  you to buy that car. How many of you would walk in
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  the lot and drop top dollar day one?
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  No, you'd shop around a little bit.
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  Same thing with your prostate cancer.
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  You pause and you shop a little bit if somebody's giving you the
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  big pressure. I'll never forget a patient of
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  mine diagnosed with prostate cancer and the surgeon said
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  we'll set you up for surgery. Got to get you in right away
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  before this spreads. Got to get it.
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  Got to get it when it's early, folks.
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  That was over 30 years ago. My patient is still alive.
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  His surgeon since passed away. Now I find that ironic, although
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  I don't wish harm to anybody. But let's talk about how you
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  process this first, when you feel stressed, don't worry that
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  you're getting stressed. You're supposed to be.
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  It's not going to collapse your immune system in the acute
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  phase. Consider it a signal to action,
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  even if that action is contemplative, reflective, a
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  little bit of research. Now you're through that window.
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  Chronic stress in the absence of actionable events will wear you
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  down. It'll make you no fun to be
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  with. It will affect your immune
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  system, and yes, it can be an amplifier of cancer.
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  So you're through the first phase.
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  My first recommendation, do your homework, study your options.
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  There is no clear path of assured outcomes.
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  None. So don't look for that ultimate.
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  I'm going to find the root cause.
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  I'm going to find the thing that is going to ZAP this cancer and
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  make it go away. That is not happening.
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  You will choose a path of treatment.
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  And once you make the choice, your stress level should go down
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  because now you have a point of action.
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  Yeah, but, doc, what if it progresses?
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  Yeah, but Doc, what if I die? OK, I get that piece of the
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  equation. So you pick your path.
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  What do you do next? You don't think about the next
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  step. You go to the end of the road.
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  This is called back engineering. The etiology of your stress go
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  to the end of the road. Yeah, I'm talking about death.
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  You go to death because it's going to happen, whether or not
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  cancer or something else takes you away from that perspective.
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  You back engineer how you want to respond.
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  I'm reminded of the movie The Candidate with Peter Boyle and
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  Robert Redford. I love that movie, and if you
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  know of what I'm speaking, then I guess we're classmates.
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  In the movie, Peter Boyle plays an operative, a political
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  operative, and his job is to find a candidate to run against
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  a powerful incumbent who will absolutely win the election.
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  Thus, this candidate is just there to stop the party from
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  being embarrassed by not having a candidate.
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  So Peter Boyle's on one side of the table.
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  He took it to Robert Redford on the other and tried to convince
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  him. Robert say, I don't want to do
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  it. I don't want to do it.
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  And Peter Boyle takes a piece of paper, writes something on it,
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  folds it in half, slides it across the table to Robert
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  Redford. He opens it up.
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  He looks at it and the paper says, you'll lose.
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  Think about that with that paper, with the assured outcome
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  of a loss. Robert Redford was liberated.
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  I'm going to lose. Imagine you're sitting at that
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  table and imagine the Archangel, whomever, your spiritual self,
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  imagine it's you. Your doppelganger writes on that
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  paper, folds it in half, slides it over to you, pick it up.
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  You look at it and says you die. Everything else pales in
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  comparison to that moment. Every worry, every thought
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  pales. So because we're we know we're
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  going to die and when we back engineer that knowledge.
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  Here are some things that have helped others that are worth
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  considering. Be prepared.
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  Have a will as much detail as you can execute.
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  It's an actionable moment. Get up, get a plot and remember
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  Queequeg in Moby Dick, He had his his casket carved out.
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  That's kind of creepy. I don't think I would do that,
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  but it kind of makes sense. You know, where are you going to
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  get buried? You're going to get cremated.
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  Details, details. Friend of mine's mother was
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  dying of lung cancer in her last days.
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  She planned her entire funeral down to the napkins.
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  It was constructive use of energy.
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  Get rid of your junk if you're overloaded with it because she's
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  going to get in the way. Nobody wants it.
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  So now you're preparing the death phase.
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  I reminded of this. I was on a plane, started
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  bumping wildly, and I thought, well, this stinks.
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  If this plane crashes, I mean, I die.
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  That's not the worst thing in the world, I'm just a guy.
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  But how about the people that were counting on me to show up
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  tomorrow? What will that be like?
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  Then I got stressed. So when the plane landed,
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  Needless to say, it didn't crash and I didn't die.
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  In that moment, I started making plans.
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  So you get this back engineering.
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  I'm not talking about the reckless oh, I'm going to live
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  like I have no tomorrow, right? No, you live like you have a
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  tomorrow now, with death being certain and everything else
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  being relatively small in comparison.
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  The thing that you can focus on is your vitality.
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  It is the quality of the life you're living now, this week,
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  tomorrow, next week. Without that focus, then you'll
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  lose some of the joie de verve, some of the joy of living.
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  You know, if you're thinking about death, you're thinking
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  about cancer. You're robbing your moment.
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  The cancer is beating you twice now.
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  My goal is to never die. All right.
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  I do anti aging medicine. Immortality is unlikely because
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  death seems likely. My real goal is to stay youthful
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  and energized until my last breath.
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  It's what I want for you. All that's achievable.
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  Now we're talking about actionable steps as opposed to
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  free floating worry. Free floating worry is useless.
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  Worry that translates into action becomes energy to
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  motivate change. Do not expect to wither.
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  Do not expect to be tired. Do not expect, nor should you
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  invite that kind of misery. If there's a treatment for your
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  prostate cancer that promises negative effect, you really got
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  to think hard. Now we're giving up the moment
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  for some pie in the sky. Maybe I won't die as quickly.
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  Deal. That folks, is a rotten deal.
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  So I say no. I say vitality.
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  Live the moment that is encompassing of stress
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  reduction. Are you going to die if you live
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  in the moment and you don't pursue conventional treatment
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  for prostate cancer? Yeah, you're going to die.
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  You're going to die either way. Maybe not a cancer, but someday
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  out there. You do not want to die twice.
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  You don't want your masculine vitality to die and then your
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  body follows it some years later.
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  No, that's, that's that's double jeopardy.
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  That's death times 2. It's a living death followed by
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  a mortal death. Do not do that.
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  So active stress reduction. We talked about actionable
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  steps. How about meditation?
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  How about yoga? How about how about how?
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  What things can you do depends on your personality.
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  Do I meditate? I do, but I do it briefly.
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  I in the gym when I'm lifting weights, I'll sometimes just
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  close my eyes. I know where the weight is.
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  I know where I am. I don't need to see anything,
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  especially I don't need to see that person in the corner of the
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  gym doing some dorky maneuver that is just annoying me.
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  It shouldn't. It should not annoy me, but it
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  does. I don't know why they do it.
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  Would you stop that already? That's dumb looking.
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  Or some doofy alpha. They're worried or worse yet,
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  worse yet, they're sitting on the machine texting on their
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  phone. Meditative moment.
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  So, so you can do this if it appeals to you, right?
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  The deep breath, depart yourself.
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  Sometimes I've been told you know, you really ought to stress
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  reduce. You really ought to relax.
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  Friends of mine are retired out playing golf, you know, every
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  day Saturday to them, they love it.
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  That would drive me nuts. Getting up without having a
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  purpose, getting up without the need, the desire to chat with
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  you guys, to have an effect on the planet because of what I do
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  as a physician. Whoa, that thought stresses me.
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  So when they tell me to relax, retire and go play golf, I get
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  heart palpitations. My point being, it's different
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  for different people. You have to know what makes you
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  happy. You have to know what makes you
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  feel satisfied. The idea that there is some type
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  of prescribed activity necessary for us to reduce our sense of
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  anxiety is false thinking. I've seen these Wellness places
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  you can go away to. They stress me out.
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  The day is chock full of stuff, you know, stretching sunrise,
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  sunset too much for me. And for some people, they love
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  it. So knowing your DNA, knowing
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  what motivates you, this is the place you want to go.
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  There is something called hedonistic deprivation.
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  It's a chronic form of stress that eats away at your vitality.
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  And it goes like this. Absence of joyful interlude
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  begets misery. Now, you take a child and you
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  don't let them play. They become a demented loser,
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  pulling the wings off of flies, right?
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  That's horrible. Flipping around.
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  A child does nothing but play. They become like, you know, like
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  a a donkey and Pinocchio, a kind of a life loser.
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  There's a balance here, folks. As a grown up, as an adult, we
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  play. We don't think of it that way,
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  but in my world, going out to dinner play time, having a
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  Margarita play time, playing kickball play time, you got to
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  have some of that. You have to know it's your job
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  to plan that extended deprivation begets a deprivation
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  rebound. So in other words, if you think
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  I have to fight cancer by wearing a hair shirt, I have to
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  fight cancer by never having another glass of wine, I have to
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  fight cancer by eating nothing but tofu.
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  You know, 310, just stop. You're creating stress.
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  You're, you're eliminating hedonistic outlet.
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  Can you have occasional foods that are in a vacuum, not good
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  for you? Yeah.
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  The the emphasis is on the occasion.
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  The emphasis is on hedonistic reinforcement of vitality,
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  knowing you ever plan a vacation?
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  Of course you have. And then you get what I like to
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  call anticipatory hedonism. You're looking forward to that
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  vacation. You know, right now, in the
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  moment, things are a little dicey, but by golly, in August,
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  I'm going to be filled in the blank on a cruise.
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  Whatever it is you like, apply that principle to your life
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  right now, with your prostate cancer, with your uncertainty
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  about what happens next week, next month, or next year.
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  Live fully. Take actionable steps.
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  Plan hedonistic interludes, whatever they may be for you.
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  They're not optional. They have to fit your life.
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  They have to fit your likes. They have to fit your budget.
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  But do not deprive yourself of that outlet.
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  It's part of your cancer treatment.
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  Yeah, I can write a prescription for that.
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  Right. Go on a 7 day cruise.
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  Would that make it tax deductible?
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  I don't know. We're stretching the envelope a
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  little there, folks. But the point here, make sure
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  you weave that into your life on a regular basis.
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  Don't let the cancer be your shadow.
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  So stress, look at that as an opportunity to reflect and take
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  an action. When your mind circles back,
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  circles back, circles back, break the chain, move it away.
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  There's a time to think about your cancer, and that's in a
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  moment maybe like this, where we're talking about it.
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  Maybe when you're with your doctor, then there's a time not
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  to talk about it. When I was in high school, a
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  classmate of mine injured his leg in a car accident.
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  And for the next three years, everything circled back to his
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  leg. You couldn't talk to the man
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  without him talking about his leg.
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  It's a nice day out today, isn't it?
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  Yeah. You know, on days like this, my
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  leg doesn't hurt so much. Where did that come from?
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  Yeah, I saw the the football game last night.
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  Yeah. I wish I could play football,
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  but you know, I can't walk because my leg hurts.
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  Don't be that person. People ask how you are.
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  They say I'm fine. They want to talk about your
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  cancer. Yeah, maybe, maybe not.
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  There are people that are confidants.
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  But you do not want to wear out folks with the theme of your
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  cancer, right? You're more than the cancer,
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  especially with prostate cancer. You do the right thing, you take
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  an action. You live with the consequence.
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  My wife once asked me if I knew I were dying, would I regret
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  anything? You know, I I do a lot of anti
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  aging. I do supplements.
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  I'm on some peptide, some hormone, all based on research,
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  all guided by my physician. Why do I do that?
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  Because I like vitality. Will I die?
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  Yes. Will those interventions have
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  helped me live longer? Who knows?
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  I like to believe they will, but that's less important to me than
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  the vitality moment. And ultimately, if I'm clutching
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  my chest, I'm going to the ground.
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  I'm not going to be thinking to myself, oh, I should have quit
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  smoking or bow, I wish I exercised more or fill in the
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  blank. That's how I want you to live
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  without regret regarding your health, your vitality.
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  You do all the things that make the most sense, and then you
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  don't have to worry because if you die, that fate was out of
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  your hands. You don't have to second guess
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  what you chose to do, even though the path remains
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  uncertain. So I don't know.
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  I hope this has been helpful to you guys.
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  It's a practice, it's an art, it's a skill.
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  It has to be repeated. This is not new.
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  You can go back thousands of years.
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  The ancient philosophers talk about stress.
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  It's not the result of modern living.
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  It's not because of cell phones. It's not because of the space
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  age jets, cars. It was here during Aesop's
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  fables. It was here when Socrates was
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  tromping the earth. It is the state of mankind.
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  It's one of the things that the great philosophers and religious
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  Mystics sought to eliminate. Whether it's Buddha or Christ,
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  Muhammad, It was stress reduction.
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  Peace is what they wanted us to have.
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  Well, if we had it, they didn't need to give it to us.
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  Fact is, we more often default to being stressed.
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  So take a deep breath, move to the light, find the things that
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  quicken your pulse, make you smile.
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  Therein lies your stress reduction.
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  And it helps fight cancer and it makes life more fun.
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  Well, thanks for spending some time with me.
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  I hope it wasn't too stressful. Talk to you next time.
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  Bye now.