Making Yourself Sick With Breast Cancer? Olivia Newton-John
The life lesson: sure, you can make yourself sick with your thoughts…but can you cause your own breast cancer? The successful woman (I think!): Olivia Newton-John.
“I read old interviews of myself before I went through [breast cancer], and I used to talk about being worried about getting old or getting sick,” says Olivia Newton-John in the September 2007 issue of Alternative Medicine magazine. “Who knows if I created it just to have to face my fear? I often wonder about that.”
Newton-John not only survived breast cancer, she now sees it as a gift. Did she cause her own breast cancer? I don’t know – but I do know that there are many possible causes, including genetics and environmental influences. For info on assessing your own risk, click on the Handbook of Breast Cancer Risk Assessment.
Making Yourself Sick With Breast Cancer – Olivia Newton-John
“Be careful what you think,” says Newton-John. “Your thoughts create your world.”
Newton-John believes our thoughts affect our bodies. Does this mean we “give” ourselves breast cancer, job layoffs, or broken relationships? Sure, the mind-body connection is powerful and affects every aspect of our lives…but can we actually make ourselves sick with something as serious as breast cancer, simply by thinking in certain ways?
Causing your own breast cancer… “Most illness, including breast cancer, has an emotional as well as a physical cause,” says Sat Dharam Kaur, naturopathic doctor and author of The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Breast Cancer. ”Tumors of all types may arise after a sudden shock, loss, or conflict.”
Yikes. Kaur also says that women are more prone to all types of cancers:
“Women more prone to cancer of any kind are sometimes those who put the needs of others first and are perceived as ‘good, kind, and nice,’” he says. “They are often unable to express their anger or negative emotions.”
Creating our own successful - or sick - lives. We do live up to our own expectations and beliefs – or down to them. For instance, the more we tell ourselves we’re dumb, unlovable, fat or stupid, the more we’ll become dumb, unlovable, fat, or stupid. We need to tell ourselves we will get that promotion, earn a higher salary, ace that test, fall in love with a great man, get published, or find the perfect house.
We have to set ourselves up for success – because there’s too many people who will happily hold us back. But, can we make ourselves physically sick with breast cancer, like Newton-John and Kaur are saying.
Do you agree with Newton-John - can you make yourself sick with breast cancer?
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Thanks for taking the time to comment, Tom. A friend of mine has breast cancer, and I can’t believe for a second that she made herself sick!
.-= Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen´s last blog post..5 Ways to Make Work Better – Tips for Achieving Career Goals =-.
No, you can’t give yourself cancer by having the wrong thoughts or the wrong attitude. Cancer is physical process, and whether it’s going to happen is ultimately determined by the physical and chemical laws of nature.
You also cannot cure yourself of cancer by these means.
Amanda – your comment reminds me of something I heard Oprah ask on her show yesterday: “What are you hungry FOR?” (It was a show about obese teenagers).
I love this question and plan to ask it whenever I want to tear into a bag of Cheez-Its or a carton of ice cream: what am I really needing? What do I really want?
About the causes of breast cancer — poor lifestyle habits definitely contribute to it, and so genetics. Like the info in the breast cancer and child abuse study says: everything is related to something else. That is, being physically abused as a child could lead to unhealthy adult behaviors (poor eating, smoking, addictions) — which could make you sick with breast or other cancers.
So many things start in childhood!
Thanks for being here, Amanda.
Laurie
i believe that poor eating has alot to do with cancer,and poor eating is a result of feeling negative towards oneself.
Childhood physical abuse is associated with elevated rates of cancer in adulthood, according to a new study by University of Toronto researchers.
The study, to be published July 15 in the journal Cancer, shows those individuals physically abused in childhood are more likely to develop cancer than those who have not been abused. Childhood physical abuse is associated with 49 per cent higher odds of cancer in adulthood, says Esme Fuller-Thomson of U of T’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Department of Family and Community Medicine.
“Few talk about childhood physical abuse and cancer in the same breath,” says Fuller-Thomson. “From a public health perspective, it’s extremely important that clinicians be aware of the full range of risk factors for cancer. This research provides important new knowledge about a potential childhood abuse-cancer relationship.”
The study’s findings showed the association between childhood abuse and cancer remained significant even after controlling for three major potentially confounding factors: childhood stressors, adult health behaviors (i.e. smoking, physical inactivity, alcohol consumption) and adult socioeconomic status.
Co-author Sarah Brennenstuhl, a doctoral student at U of T, notes that various psychophysiological factors could help to explain the link between childhood physical abuse and cancer. “One important avenue for future research is to investigate dysfunctions in cortisol production – the hormone that prepares us for ‘fight or flight’ –as a possible mediator in the abuse-cancer relationship.”
Source: University of Toronto press release (June 25, 2009).