Is Stress Fueling Cancer? The Growing Link Between Urban Anxiety and Health Risks

Dr Vinay Samuel Gaikwad

In the race to keep up with city life, many of us are paying a steep price — one we don’t recognise on a daily basis. Discussions about cancer tend to focus on genetics, on lifestyle factors like smoking or poor diet, and on environmental pollution. Yet one silent, and sometimes deadly, contributor is rising by the day: “chronic stress”.

As a cancer surgeon with more than 20 years of experience, I know that my patients’ emotional health is key to their physical health, to recovery, and to how diseases develop. While stress itself doesn’t directly “cause” cancer, mounting scientific evidence links the two, finding that chronic, uncontrolled stress can actually fuel the biological changes that can lead to the disease, or make the disease more difficult to fight.

Why Are Cities Making It Worse?

The fast paced nature of urban life; the pressures of work in competitive environments; financial worries; social loneliness can all culminate in a perfect storm towards anxiety and emotional burnout. Because chronic stress leads to an oversupply of stress hormones, like cortisol, it can actually wear out your immune system, cause inflammation throughout the body and, in some cases, worst-case scenario and depending on the type of cancer, help cancer grow.

For one thing, studies suggest that stress can affect behaviors that may raise cancer risk — including overeating, drinking alcohol, smoking or skipping regular health maintenance checks.

Can Managing Stress Lower Risk?

And although some stress factors can’t be removed, learning to cope with it better could lower cancer risks and improve general health, experts say. Strategies such as meditation, yoga, exercise, mindfulness practices and strong social connections can counter balance mental wellness.

I’ve seen firsthand among my patients that the more they focus on mental resilience, the better they handle treatment and the stronger they are when treatment ends.

The Bottom Line

Stress alone may not give you cancer, but ignoring its long-term impact would be risky. Urban stress is real. So is its impact on long-term health risks. Discussion of emotional well-being should be included in conversations about cancer prevention and treatment.

We need to stop simply fighting disease and embrace building health, mind, and body together.

  Dr. Vinay Samuel Gaikwad is a senior cancer surgeon