In Letting it all out might increase chances of cancer survivorship, we shared that finding techniques to minimize stress is an effective way to better health. Our focus in that post was journaling and talk therapy as a means to expressing thoughts and feelings, rather than stuffing your emotions and keeping it all inside. According to the experts featured in that post, "It's about the link between the mind and the body and how your mind state can affect the disease state in the body."

In addition to journaling and talk therapy, cancer centers are offering cancer patients and caregivers self hypnosis techniques to help reduce stress as a part of an overall cancer treatment program. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's social work supervisor Aida Molano, who has taught hypnosis and self-hypnosis classes at the center for the last 16 years, is offering a 30-minute self-hypnosis CD online as a free download.

According to Molano, hypnosis can help patients and caregivers offset sleeping difficulties, fear of medical procedures, problems concentrating, pain and fatigue using hypnosis techniques. If interested, by clicking on this link, you can download the free 30-minute self-hypnosis CD.

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center researchers have confirmed what more than a few cancer patients have personally believed for some time now. Stress increases cancer growth and finding ways to relax and reduce stress is beneficial to cancer survivorship.

In a preclinical study carried out on mice with ovarian cancer, researchers found that cancerous tumors grew and spread faster when the mice were experiencing increased levels of stress. According to the researchers, the conclusion of this study is the first definitive link between psychological stress and the biological processes that make ovarian tumors grow and spread. It appears stress hormones bind to receptors directly on tumor cells and, in turn, stimulate new blood vessel growth and other factors that lead to faster and more aggressive tumors.

"The concept of stress hormone receptors directly driving cancer growth is very new," said Dr. Anil Sood, the study's senior author. "Not much had been known about how often these receptors are expressed in cancer, and more importantly, whether they had any functional significance. Our research opens a new area of investigation."

The good news in this -- besides the fact that this study begins to validate what cancer survivors have been saying for years in the personal belief of the link between stress and cancer -- is that stress can be controlled and reduced by lifestyle changes and medication. In fact, the researchers found a beta blocker heart medication effectively blocked the adverse effect stress hormones had on tumor growth.

This could open new areas of research. Indeed, Dr. Sood and his team will continue to research the role of stress in cancer and examine the effects of stress hormones on cancers besides ovarian cancer. To read more about the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center preclinical study, go here.

Renewing Moments Gifts for Women in Cancer Treatment offers soothing gifts of comfort designed for the special needs of women facing the cancer journey by alleviating the side effects of cancer treatments.

Melinda Salzer, a nine-year breast cancer survivor, knows the challenges experienced during chemotherapy and radiation -- throat sores, difficulty swallowing, lack of appetite, dry skin, lack of concentration -- because she went through cancer treatments as a cancer patient. From first-hand experience, and because she could not find a gift for a friend going through cancer treatment, Salzer came up with the idea of creating a business that would offer the right kind of gifts for a woman going through the ordeal and side effects of treatment.

Renewing Moments is that idea into a delightful place where you can find the highest quality of hand-made, organic, and natural products gifts for a woman who is facing cancer treatment -- or for yourself. At Renewing Moments you can find Renewing Bath Time, Renewing Spirit, Renewing Tastes, Renewing Tastes Deluxe and Renewing Tea Time.

"Since I went through treatment myself, I was intimately familiar with what women experience and the special needs that come up. I remember how much I wanted to feel like myself, and now with Renewing Moments, I can help other women feel better, too." Salzer donates one dollar from every sale to cancer care and research.