The Myth of Normal 80

nerves, lymph nodes, messenger chemicals, and molecules throughout the entire organism. Thus, from a broader interpersonal biology point of view, her illness may not be so idiopathic after all, but the understandable outcome of chronic and acute stress. Even if untreatable by present-day medical techniques, it need not be beyond healing, especially if we bring in a wiser, science-based appreciation of the interconnected complexity of the disease process and the bodymind unity. Returning to cancer, the work of Dr. Cole and colleagues has shown that activation of the body’s stress response can promote tumor growth and spread. It is important to note, as they warned, “that stress per se does not cause cancer; however, clinical and experimental data indicate that stress and other factors such as mood, coping mechanisms, and social support can significantly influence the underlying cellular and molecular processes that facilitate malignant cell growth.”[11] This raises a key point. Stress cannot “cause” cancer, for the simple reason that our bodies naturally harbor potentially malignant cells at all times. The body contains over thirty-seven trillion cells, in all various stages of development, maturity, and decay. Malignant transformation happens regularly, as an accidental by-product of natural cell division. Under normal conditions the organism’s defenses can eliminate such threats to well-being. We know from autopsies, for example, that many women have breast cancer cells, just as many men have prostate cancer cells, without ever developing the disease of cancer. The question is, What drives the progression of these cells into clinical illness? What keeps the immune system from successfully confronting the internal menace? This is where stress plays its incendiary role: for example, through the release of inflammatory proteins into the circulation—proteins that can instigate damage to DNA and impede DNA repair in the face of malignant transformation. These proteins, called cytokines, can also inactivate genes that would normally suppress tumor growth, enable chemical messengers that support the growth and survival of tumor cells, stimulate the branching of blood vessels that bring nutrients to feed the tumor, and undermine the immune system. Even at the cellular and