| According to a new study, happiness and optimism | | | | women who suffered two or more traumatic events |
| may play a role against breast cancer while adverse | | | | had a 62 percent increased risk of the disease. |
| life events can increase the risk of developing the | | | | While pharmaceutical drugs have seen a lot of |
| disease. | | | | innovation over the years, the researchers think that |
| Breast cancer is the second most common type of | | | | young women who have been exposed to a number |
| cancer after lung cancer and starts in the cells of the | | | | of negative life events should be considered 'at-risk' |
| breast in men and women. The mainstay of its | | | | for breast cancer and treated accordingly. |
| treatment is surgery and cancer drugs. The study | | | | However, there's a possible pitfall that since the |
| has been conducted at the Ben-Gurion University of | | | | women were interviewed after their diagnosis, it |
| the Negev, Israel and published in the British journal | | | | could have made them recall negative events more |
| BMC Cancer. | | | | readily. Also, recently, in a different study, the |
| During the study, researchers asked women about | | | | researchers had discovered that disclosing breast |
| their life experiences and evaluated their levels of | | | | cancer diagnoses is itself quite a challenge. |
| happiness, optimism, anxiety, and depression prior to | | | | Despite the skepticism the scientists believe that it's |
| diagnosis. Further, the researchers used this | | | | safe to say that experiencing more than one severe |
| information to examine the relationship between life | | | | and/or mild to moderate life event raises a red flag |
| events, psychological distress and breast cancer | | | | of risk for breast cancer among young women. |
| among young women. | | | | However, a general feeling of happiness and optimism |
| A total of 622 women between the ages of 25 and | | | | may have protective effect. |
| 45 were interviewed: 255 breast cancer patients and | | | | Additionally, the mechanism by which the central |
| 367 healthy women. The findings of the study show | | | | nervous, hormonal and immune systems interact and |
| that there was a clear link between outlook and risk | | | | how behavior and external events affect these three |
| of breast cancer, with optimists 25 percent less likely | | | | systems is not fully understood. And it needs more |
| to have developed the disease. On the other hand | | | | research to figure out these questions. |