Why do some fall ill when they don’t smoke, don’t drink alcohol or little, play sports? Surgeon Niamey Wilson answers.
She does not drink, does not smoke, has no cancers in her family … and yet the diagnosis falls: “Madam, it is a malignant tumor.” We have all heard at least once the case of this person who discovers that they have cancer when they have no specific risk factor. Chance? No, “We cannot say that cancer is a case of bad luck” estimates the French researcher Gianluca Severi from Inserm. So what’s going on?
“When you think about the causes of cancer, what comes to your mind? Personally, the first thing I think is the lifestyle: smoking, alcohol consumption, overweight, etc. then, I think of genetics. Finally, I think of bad luck, by chance, the cosmic rays that strike the bad DNA segment …” Develops Dr. Perry Wilson of the Yale Faculty of Medicine (USA) in an article on the Meddscape site. He is not a cancer specialist but his wife, the Dr. Niamey Wilson, yes. Also, he asked him what the major factors were causing cancer. “She replied quickly and confidently” he said “And that’s something I wouldn’t have thought of”.
Niamey Wilson is a surgeon specializing in breast cancer. She receives many women in her office. To her husband’s question, her answer was clear: “Women who arrive with breast cancer, often without risk factors, no family history, no particular genetic risk, young … The common point is stress. ” Niamey Wilson no longer has the number of patients with breast cancer who recently divorced or lost a parent or have experienced a particularly stressful professional life during the past year. For her, stress and cancer are linked, it is a certainty.
Several studies go in this direction by showing that stress alters the functioning of the immune system. Gianluca Severi confirms that “Cancer stems from a succession of events such as mutations but also anomalies of the immune system which do not destroy abnormal cells”. For Dr. Perry Wilson, each person should try to find what reduces daily stress perceived in their own life “Whether yoga or golf, spend time with your loved ones, it is an effort that is worth it. Your body and your local immune micro-environment will thank you.”
