Both patients and their doctors know that a diagnosis of cancer, or of its recurrence, is an acutely stressful experience. But not everyone realizes that chronic stress which comes in many flavors, all objectionable–can make cancer worse, or that stress reduction might be helpful to the cancer patient. Indeed, there is now evidence showing that systematic stress reduction can 1) improve physical, mental and emotional health and quality of life, 2) can lead to better health-related behaviors and decisions, and 3) may even increase lifespan.

By chronic stress, we specifically mean all of the abnormalities that have accumulated in our bodies due to an overload of the system. These abnormalities accumulate because we were repeatedly overloaded, day in and day out, by stressful situations (stressors). Such situations can be generated by external stressors (e.g., disease or disease treatment that causes pain or other unpleasant feelings) or by internal stressors (e.g., by negative psychological states or attitudes such as guilt, depression, low self-esteem or just by giving up). What makes these situations stressful is that we are aware of what is going on, and we interpret them as being unwanted threats to our well-being. Other stress-inducing situations do not require our awareness of them. These include unnoticed exposure to harmful physical agents in our environment such as pollutants or free radicals. Even lack of a stimulus, such as lack of exercise or lack of sleep, if it is needed but not done, adds to our stress.

Whatever the trigger, the experiences that we don’t adequately cope with, and which are thus stress-inducing, permanently increase the levels of stress hormones that are circulating in the blood. Chronically high levels of stress hormones, in turn, suppress the immune system and reduce the ability of the body to defend and/or repair itself. When the immune system becomes weak, many chronic diseases including cancer become worse, the patient becomes more susceptible to other health problems, quality of life is lowered, and life expectancy is shortened.

Is there anything that can be done to avoid or reverse these harmful effects of stress on cancer? Recent evidence suggests yes. No, surgeons can’t cut stress out of our bodies (or minds), and psychiatrists cannot cut it out of our minds–tranquilizers, anti-anxiety drugs and anti-depressants have substantial limitations. But behavioral techniques from both conventional medicine and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) can be learned and practiced. These techniques can reduce the harmful effects of stress, make us healthier, and better able us to cope with chronic diseases such as cancer. These anti-stress techniques have given birth to a new field of medicine: psycho-oncology, a field championed since the 1980s by a far-sighted woman, Dr. Jimmie Holland, of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

The more effective of these behavioral, “mind-body” techniques help us transform ourselves to a new state of existence and consciousness in which two important changes occur:

1. We significantly reduce our chronic stress load and
   
   
2. we take in less new stress because we cope better with new situations that require flexible and adaptive behavior.

Indeed, published scientific studies have demonstrated the health benefits of stress reduction on chronic disease in general and on cancer in particular. For example, a 1989 study in The Lancet by Dr. David Speigel at California’s Stanford University, observed that women with advanced breast cancer who had participated in the study’s psychotherapy and social support group lived longer on average than women who did not. Other studies, but clearly not all of them, have reported similar effects. Can we verify and improve on the effects seen by Dr. Speigel? Are there stress reduction techniques that are even more powerful than psychotherapy and support groups? We think there is such a technique, and we are currently conducting a controlled, randomized, research study in Chicago to determine whether, and to what extent, this technique can increase quality of life and possibly lifespan in women with advanced breast cancer.

The technique called the Transcendental Meditation Program® is known as Maharishi Vedic Medicine (MVM). MVM is the oldest continuous system of natural medicine today (going back at least 5000 years) and is recommended by the World Health Organization. In the US, over 5000 physicians recommend TM to their patients with chronic stress-related diseases (which includes most chronic diseases). So far, over four million people world wide have learned this technique. There are over 600 scientists that have investigated the health benefits of TM. Finally, our research team in recent years has received over $15 million dollars in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the effects of TM on chronic disease.

TM is a simple, natural mental technique for stress reduction that is systematically taught. TM has been shown in at least three survey studies to be associated with a lower incidence of chronic disease, including cancer. Even stronger evidence has been obtained in a series of controlled, randomized NIH-funded clinical trials. It was shown that TM lowers high blood pressure and keeps it there without drugs. Other clinical trials have shown similar results for angina pectoris and for atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is the precursor to the two major killers of our time–coronary heart disease and stroke. In a study done at Harvard, TM practice was associated with an increase in lifespan among elderly subjects.

Recently, a follow-up analysis was done in which several hundred elderly subjects that had participated in the randomized clinical trials on TM just mentioned were followed for seven more years. The analysis showed that those who had learned TM lived significantly longer than those who did not. This included a decrease in the number of deaths due to both heart disease and cancer.

TM also has beneficial effects on the mind that may be relevant to cancer. TM reduces negative psychological variables (such as anger and depression) and increases positive psychological variables (such as happiness and self-esteem).

The mechanism behind the dramatic health benefits of TM is simple, yet intriguing. It is well-known that we metabolize our experiences (e.g., we convert mental and psychological experiences into specific changes in the molecules in our body-think, for example, of stress-induced ulcers). If, on the other hand, we can regularly experience a state of increased order and intelligence, then our bodies (and minds) will metabolize these experience, and we will be transformed into a more orderly physical and mental state. Indeed, according to the theory of Maharishi Vedic Medicine, TM systematically provides the experience of a major fourth state of consciousness, a state of restful alertness, beyond the three common states of consciousness: deep sleep, dreaming and waking states. Regular practice allows the TM practitioner to fully develop this state and even higher states of consciousness. These states bring out what is already within us and are completely natural parts of the development of one’s full human potential.

The result of regular TM practice is an increase in our body’s “inner intelligence”. Although this effect initially occurs at a non-material level, it nevertheless guides changes in the material level, in our bodies, and the result is an increase in the orderliness of our body/mind. These changes, which occur spontaneously with TM practice, include increases in the ability of the body to defend itself, to repair itself, and to adapt to new situations, including stressful ones. Over time, our reactions to stressful situations become more healthy responses. At the same time, the TM technique allows the body to release deep-rooted stresses that were accumulated as a result of previous stressful experiences.

Interestingly, MVM theory takes a modern physics and quantum mechanical view of the universe and of our bodies, more so than does modern medicine. Modern medicine views the individual patient and her body more as a static mechanical system (like a car) whose parts occasionally need replacing.

Western medicine does not yet recognize the underlying holistic field that we call the body’s inner intelligence and which Einstein called the Unified Field. TM allows you to directly tap into and experience this inner intelligence.

The strategy of Maharishi Vedic Medicine for cancer is not limited to TM. For optimum prevention and treatment of chronic disease, MVM recommends other techniques as well (40 in all) which cover other important areas such as nutrition, nutritional supplements and detoxification. It is not possible to review all of them here.

One is an herbal formulation known as Maharishi Amrit Kalash (MAK). MAK has been shown to inhibit and reverse breast cancer in rats. We do not yet know why MAK works, but we are certain that it is not toxic to our cells unlike chemotherapeutic drugs. In fact, MAK has been shown to be one of the most potent scavengers of oxygen free radicals. Also, MAK appears to make chemotherapy more tolerable to cancer patients. There is also some evidencethat MAK may selectively affect tumor cells, causing them to undergo differentiation and programmed cell death. Like TM, MAK is seen as increasing thebody’s inner intelligence, as well as acting at the material (molecular) level as an anti-oxidant. Research has shown that life-style factors are major contributors to health and disease. Among these factors are diet, exercise and stress management. The recent ability of TM and MVM–which were introduced into the western world in 1959 now provides a systematic and powerful new approach to the treatment and prevention of chronic disease. In particular, it provides an opportunity for all of us to help any woman with breast cancer whether she is your patient, yourself or your acquaintance–by increasing her quality of life and possibly even her life span, and doing so without toxicity or side-effects. Women who are over 55 with advanced breast cancer (with metastases) and living in Chicago (our study may also open centers in Terre Haute, Indiana; Cincinnati, Ohio; and New York) are eligible for our free study and should contact us directly [773-665-3681; jzfields@interaccess.com]. All others who wish to make further inquiry can call us as well, or they can make contact directly with trained TM teachers in their area [1-888-LEARNTM].These teachers can also provide information on MAK and other MVM approaches to cancer.