When someone is diagnosed with cancer, we often see comments like “keep fighting, you’ve got this!”. Is there any scientific basis behind this actually having an effect on the outcome / survival and remission rates? What exactly are they doing when they’re “fighting” that helps to beat the cancer?
In: Biology
No, the idea that people can fight cancer is pure fucking selfishness, it is so completely wrong it makes me sick to my stomach. Regardless of how hard people try, sometimes cancer doesnt give a fuck and it kills you anyways, and then when someone “loses the fight” it is seen as THEIR OWN FAULT, which is absolutely horrible for self esteem and severely stresses people out which makes it more likely that cancer will kill you.
Stress is one of the biggest factors in regards to cancer. If you are stressed out, your immune system will shut down because your body is preparing to run or actually fight for your life. Your immune system is responsible for destroying cancer cells but it isnt perfect, and regardless of how hard you try, sometimes the immune system and chemo just isnt enough.
By forcing this idea onto people that its their fault if they are dying, and that they just need to try harder, only makes people more stressed out. In turn this lowers the immune system and you are even less likely to survive.
The notion of “fighting cancer” is due to the pure selfishness of everyone around the individual.
Because they want to believe they are doing something kind, because they dont want the person to leave them, because they want to believe that there is hope, because they are too selfish to simply be there with the person even if it is hopeless. People care more about themselves and how a person with cancer affects them, they want to believe they are helping so that they can feel good about themself but it only makes things worse because they dont even consider what the person with cancer is going through and how those words might affect them in a bad way, especially when you are already struggling to live.
Putting these kinds of expectations on people is just cruel, and the best way to help, is just to try and get rid of as much stress as possible so that the body can do what it is designed to do.
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