How Stress Carves an Invisible Mark on the Body, Raising Cancer Risk

Growing research has found that chronic stress puts your body in ‘fight-or-flight’ mode, over time creating conditions where tumors can grow.

Shan Lam

JoJo Novaes

9/11/2025|Updated: 9/18/2025

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One rainy afternoon in Taiwan, an older couple who were both in fragile health arrived at a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinic.

The husband, paralyzed from a recent stroke, sat slumped in a wheelchair while his wife pushed him with trembling hands. Six months earlier, the couple had lost more than 40 million Taiwan dollars—about $1.4 million—to fraud. The financial blow sent the husband into a downward spiral that ended in a stroke. His wife, overwhelmed by caregiving and despair, could barely eat or sleep.

Chen Bo Sheng, a TCM practitioner who specializes in complementary cancer treatment, urged the wife to take care of her own health. However, three months later, she returned with an early-stage breast cancer diagnosis.

“Stress doesn’t just weigh on the mind,” Chen said on “Health 1+1,” a program on NTD, a sister outlet of The Epoch Times. “It leaves its mark on the body.”

Chronic Stress and Cancer: An Invisible Link

Chen warned that chronic stress—particularly when internalized—can significantly increase cancer risk.

Many of his cancer patients, he noted, had endured immense pressure before their diagnosis. The most common source? Work. Some were bombarded with urgent texts—even during dinner—and felt obligated to respond immediately. Others were filled with dread at the thought of returning to work each week. Over time, this kind of constant emotional strain can physically wear down the body.

Other major life setbacks, such as financial fraud, divorce, or caregiving stress, also can break the body’s defenses. Chen has encountered several patients whose cancers developed shortly after such life-altering stressors.

Why Emotions Affect the Body

According to TCM, emotions don’t just affect mood—they affect the organs. The body’s health depends on the smooth flow of blood and “qi,” or vital energy, through invisible channels called meridians, which connect to internal organs. Emotional imbalance disrupts this flow, leading over time to disease.

Chen said that chronic stress or repressed emotions often block energy flow, causing what is known as “qi stagnation,” which in turn can obstruct blood flow.

Modern research supports similar ideas from a biomedical perspective. Studies show that prolonged stress keeps the body in “fight-or-flight” mode, flooding it with hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Over time, this weakens the immune system and causes chronic inflammation, creating conditions where tumors can grow. Tumors then worsen the cycle by releasing signals that heighten stress and fuel further cancer growth.

This stress-cancer link is not only theoretical. A large meta-analysis of more than 282,000 breast cancer patients found that both depression and anxiety significantly increased the risk of recurrence and mortality, with combined conditions worsening outcomes even further.

In short, stress and emotional health not only set the stage for cancer, but also affect how patients respond after diagnosis.

From his clinical practice, Chen observes distinct emotional patterns in female patients: Those with fast-flaring emotions, such as quick anger, tend to develop breast conditions such as nodules or breast cancer. Those with long-term emotional suppression, often related to family pressures, are more prone to gynecological cancers such as uterine or ovarian cancer.

How Stress Affects the Body Over Time

Stress doesn’t affect the body all at once—it builds in stages. Chen outlines how different durations of stress manifest physically:

Short-Term Stress: Causes anxiety, insomnia, or vivid dreams, often in the days leading up to an exam or important meeting.
Mid-Term Stress: Affects the digestive system after about three weeks, leading to issues such as indigestion and bloating.
Long-Term Stress: Disrupts hormones after more than three months. Chen noted that many female students near his clinic experience menstrual irregularities from the pressure of final exams or thesis deadlines, showing the effect of long-term stress on the hormone system.
Extended Long-Term Stress: Weakens the immune system after six months or more, making people more susceptible to colds, fatigue, and skin issues such as hives or acne, and may even raise the risk of abnormal cell growth.

Prolonged stress not only raises the risk of developing cancer, but also increases cancer mortality. Research has found that chronic stress raises the risk of dying from cancer by 14 percent. For people under age 40, chronic stress can increase one’s risk of death from cancer by as much as 80 percent.

Mindset Shifts for Stress Relief

Chen emphasized that managing emotions and stress is key to both preventing and treating cancer.

He shared two key mindsets he personally uses for stress relief:

Setting a Stop-Loss Point

This concept, borrowed from investing, means deciding when to accept a loss and stop further harm. Whether losing money, a job, or a relationship, acknowledge the loss and focus on healing the body and mind.

“If you keep bleeding emotionally, your body will suffer another loss—your health,” he said.

Pure Heart, Simple Remedy

Chen has a calligraphy piece hanging in his clinic that reads: “A clean heart ends all illness; the right remedy cures stubborn disease.”

He added, “For doctors, achieving inner calm is also essential in order to correctly diagnose illness and prescribe the proper treatment.”

Chen stated that the most essential “medicine” isn’t always traditional Chinese or Western—it’s whatever brings inner peace.

Simple Stress Relief Techniques

In addition to mindset shifts, Chen recommends the following simple, effective techniques to relax the mind and body:

Countdown Method

He shared one of his personal go-to methods for relaxation and stress relief: the countdown method. “Many people count sheep when they can’t sleep—one sheep, two sheep, three sheep—until the whole room is filled with sheep. I suggest doing the opposite: count backward,” he said.

The countdown method helps not only with sleep but also with short daytime breaks. For example, if you have a 10-minute break between meetings, start from 100 and count backward: 100, 99, 98. Take it slowly and use two to three minutes to count down to zero, Chen said.

Focusing on the subtraction helps the brain shift into a relaxed state, reducing the buildup of stress.

Stress-Relieving Acupoints

Self-massaging acupoints can help relieve stress and promote relaxation anytime. Chen recommends the following three easily accessible acupoints:

Inner Gate (“Neiguan”): Located three finger-widths above the wrist crease, between the two tendons. Pressing this point can soothe discomfort in the heart, chest, and stomach.

Illustration by The Epoch Times

Spirit Gate (“Shenmen”): Located at the wrist crease on the inner wrist (pinky side) in a small depression. Pressing this point has a calming and sedative effect.

Peaceful Sleep (“Anmian”): Located in the depression between the mastoid bone behind the ear and the hairline. Gently tapping this area, even without precisely locating the point, can reduce stress and improve sleep.

Illustration by The Epoch Times

Studies confirm the mental health benefits of stimulating acupoints, including through acupuncture. A 2024 review found that acupuncture can improve depression with fewer side effects than medication, with Inner Gate and Spirit Gate being commonly used acupoints.