July 25, 2025
Author: Shea Mencel, Certified Integrative Health Coach & Co-founder, We Are Here
In our last blog, we talked about everyday healing habits—low-cost, accessible things we can do to feel more like ourselves.
Let’s talk about stress.
Not the kind of stress that passes quickly, like running late or losing your keys.
We’re talking about the kind that lingers. The kind that comes with serious illness, caregiving, financial pressure, uncertainty about the future. The kind that builds from trying to hold everything together, day after day, while navigating systems that often weren’t built for you.
The truth is, most of us are living with some level of chronic stress. And this kind of stress doesn’t just live in your head. It affects your entire body.
And if you’re navigating cancer, that stress is magnified.
The uncertainty, the waiting, the side effects, the financial impact, the way people treat you differently—it’s all a lot. Cancer doesn’t just affect your body. It affects your sense of safety, your relationships, your future. Trying to heal while under this kind of pressure isn’t just hard—it’s an added layer of work your body is constantly doing.
Chronic stress isn’t just a feeling. It’s a full-body state.
When your brain senses danger, it kicks your body into high alert. Your sympathetic nervous system fires, stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline surge, and everything in you prepares to fight or flee. That’s a smart, protective response.
But when the stress doesn’t let up, your body stays stuck in survival mode.
Research shows that chronic stress can:
- Suppress your immune system
- Increase inflammation
- Disrupt digestion and sleep
- Cause hormonal imbalances
- Speed up biological aging
One large meta-analysis of over 300 studies found that chronic stress weakens both arms of the immune system.¹ In one study, immune cells from chronically stressed individuals produced 23% more inflammation when exposed to common pathogens (1).
Your immune system is your cancer defense system
We think of the immune system as something that protects us from colds and infections. But it’s also constantly working to identify and eliminate abnormal cells before they grow into cancer.
When stress becomes chronic, this natural surveillance system starts to break down.
Chronic stress can:
- Reduce the activity of natural killer (NK) cells, which help detect and destroy tumors (2)
- Suppress T-cell production, weakening your adaptive immune response (2)
- Disrupt communication between immune cells, leading to imbalance and inflammation (2)
This matters deeply for anyone going through cancer, living with it, recovering from it, or constantly healing in its aftermath. Your immune system supports you at every stage:
- Before diagnosis: catching and clearing abnormal cells early
- During treatment: helping you recover, resist infection, and tolerate side effects
- When you’re living with cancer: managing the day-to-day, navigating fatigue and symptoms, and helping your body cope and heal with ongoing treatments or scans
- In survivorship: reducing long-term inflammation, restoring balance, and staying resilient through uncertainty
If your immune system is suppressed, your body’s natural ability to protect and heal itself is compromised.
The research is clear: stress affects cancer outcomes
In one study, mice exposed to chronic stress developed faster-growing pancreatic tumors and four times more metastases (3).
In women with metastatic breast or ovarian cancer, high stress was associated with reduced immune activity and thus poorer survival (4).
In early-stage breast cancer, patients who reported lower anxiety had stronger immune responses and better recovery—benefits that lasted more than a year (5).
Large-scale studies have shown higher rates of colorectal, esophageal, and lung cancers in people under chronic psychosocial stress (6).
The message is clear: stress changes how your body functions. And when you’re navigating cancer, those changes matter.
The good news: there are simple ways to reduce chronic stress
You don’t need a two-hour morning routine or expensive wellness tools to help your body heal from stress. You just need to give your nervous system small, consistent reminders that it’s safe.
Here are a few research-supported ways to calm your stress response:
Breathe intentionally
Try box breathing: inhale for 4 counts, hold for 4, exhale for 4, hold for 4. Just a few minutes of slow, deep breathing tells your body you’re safe.
Talk to someone you trust
Even 10 minutes of connection can lower cortisol and shift you out of fight-or-flight.
Move your body gently
Walk, stretch, dance—any form of gentle movement helps regulate stress hormones and improve immune function. We are big fans of a kitchen dance party to “shake it off”.
Step outside
Time in nature, or even just sunlight, can regulate mood, reduce inflammation, and calm the nervous system.
Do something soothing every day
Meditate, Music, prayer, journaling, art, silence—whatever feels nourishing. Keep it simple and regular. We love to do Joe Dispenza’s meditations on Spotify.
Name what’s hard
Saying something out loud—like “This is a lot” or “I’m scared”—can reduce stress by activating the rational part of the brain (the prefrontal cortex). This helps bring your nervous system out of survival mode.⁷ Honesty helps your body exhale.
Put your phone down
Social media scrolls and constant notifications flood your brain with short bursts of dopamine, which can actually raise stress over time—especially when you’re comparing your real life to someone else’s highlight reel. One study found that even a brief digital detox lowered anxiety and improved sleep (8).
These practices don’t erase stress, but they help your body shift from “survival” to “healing.” And that shift is everything.
What this means for care systems
Too often, stress is dismissed as something people should just “deal with.” But chronic stress is a physiological condition with biological consequences.
That’s why reducing stress should be part of care.
This means:
- Making space for emotional and financial support
- Investing in navigation and peer connection
- Building systems that respect people’s time, dignity, and safety
Healing happens not just through medicine, but through care that helps people feel seen, supported, and safe, and that shift changes everything.
About the Author
Shea Mencel is a Certified Integrative Health Coach, health equity advocate, and Co-founder & Vice President of Navigation at We Are Here. With a background in trauma-informed care, mind-body nutrition, and integrative wellness, she supports people with cancer in reclaiming power, clarity, and well-being, no matter where they are in the process. She is also a two-time breast cancer survivor.
Shea believes care should be bioindividual, holistic, accessible, and rooted in community, and that even the smallest changes in how we eat, move, and rest can make a powerful difference. You can learn more about her work at www.sheamencel.com.
References
1Psychological stress and the human immune system: a meta-analytic study of 30 years of inquiry
Segerstrom SC, Miller GE. Psychol Bull. 2004;130(4):601–630.
2The influence of bio-behavioural factors on tumour biology: pathways and mechanisms
Antoni MH, Lutgendorf SK, Cole SW, et al. Cancer. 2006;106(3):570–577.
3Chronic stress accelerates pancreatic cancer growth and invasion: a critical role for beta-adrenergic signaling in the pancreatic microenvironment
Kim-Fuchs C, Poth JM, Waldner M, et al. Brain Behav Immun. 2014;40:40–47.
4Depressed and anxious mood and T-cell cytokine expression in ovarian cancer patients
Lutgendorf SK, Lamkin DM, DeGeest K, et al. Clin Cancer Res. 2008;14(3):791–800.
5Psychosocial factors and immune recovery in breast cancer patients: a longitudinal study
Costanzo ES, Lutgendorf SK, Rothrock NE, Anderson B. J Psychosom Res. 2005;59(5):277–285.
6Work stress and risk of cancer: meta-analysis of 5700 incident cancer events in 116 000 European men and women
Heikkilä K, Nyberg ST, Theorell T, et al. BMJ. 2013;346:f165.
7Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli
Lieberman MD, Eisenberger NI, et al. Psychol Sci. 2007;18(5):421–428.
8Effects of a smartphone digital detox on mood, anxiety, and sleep
Heitmayer M, Lahlou S. Comput Hum Behav. 2021;119:106716.