Prostate Cancer and Stress
Although more men may be saved from dying of prostate cancer due to advances in screening and treatment, a new study suggests that emotional stress (which causes an increase of metabolic acid in the blood and then tissues) from being diagnosed with the disease carries deadly risks. A study of more than four million Swedish men over the age of 30 found that the diagnosis of prostate cancer, which occurred in more than 168,000 of them during the study period, amplified the risk of fatal heart problems and suicide.
In men who were diagnosed before 1987, the risk of a fatal heart attack during the week following diagnosis increased 11-fold, and the risk of suicide increased 800 percent. After 1987, the risks of suffering a non-fatal heart attack during the first week of diagnosis fell to 300 percent. But the risk of suicide, although small, held steady. During the year following diagnosis, the risk of both heart attacks and suicide diminished but did not disappear.
