I was going to write a blog later in my series of blogs on toxins and stress and disease from the studies that I have been reading for the last month. But since a comment was made about stress and whether it has a correlation to disease to the previous blog I wrote on toxins and stress creating disease in our bodies, I will jump ahead and share some research I found on the relation of stress and disease. A relation to stress and disease has been researched by many doctors, psychologists, and medical research facilities and conclusions are that stress does several things to the body causing it to shut down in areas that can effect the body with disease and illness.

Do the common phrases, Tension Headache, Upset Stomach, Shaky Nerves, Tight Chest, ring a bell? Studies showed that work place stress has created an increase in heart disease and high blood pressure as well as making the body more susceptible to flu and viruses. It also has shown that stress can be related to Type 2 Diabetes as well as obesity. "Stress in general can disrupt the body's ability to process glucose, especially in people whose genetics make them vulnerable", said Richard Surwit of the Duke University Medical Center in a research article in the November/December issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

Finding out you have cancer can be traumatic. Losing your hair when taking the treatments can be just as traumatic. I realized what men must feel like every day when they get older and their hair starts to thin, when I started combing my hair and having pieces of it coming out in clusters or waking up to find strands on my pillow. During my first round of cancer I let my hair fall out on its own until it got to a point, I knew I would look better bald with a baseball hat on.

The second time I went through cancer, I decided to take a bold approach and at the first sign of hair starting to come out, I got a friend to shave my head. It was my way of taking the traumatic experience into my own hands. We did it outside and let my hair blow off the back deck into the air where we hoped birds would recycle it into nests. Wearing a bandanna became my trademark.  I think I had one of every color in the rainbow and all designs given to me by friends showing their support. A few even opted to go bald that summer with me and one reminded me every day she walked into her walk-in cooler in her restaurant, how she thought of me when the chill hit her head. With a support group like that, the baldness did not bother me.

Dressed in my favorite navy patch print bandanna with a beautiful half moon and star pendant pinned in the center in the front of my forehead, (another gift from a friend), I looked more like a gypsy than a cancer patient. While shopping with my mother in a department store that day, a lady came up to me and announced that she had had a glorious ride on her motorcycle too and that the weather was great. I laughed inside at the thought that I was being recognized as a biker and not a cancer patient. Of course my mother stood with her mouth dropped and then whispered to me "the nerve of some people." I eased her by saying, "Mom I wished I was out on a motorcycle today enjoying the breeze blowing over my head."

My advice to anyone losing their hair when going through cancer treatments is to be bold and take it off yourself making it YOUR CHOICE and know that there are a lot of people with shaved heads and extremely short hair wearing baseball hats, bandannas, or just letting the sun hit the shiny surface. You won't stick out. In a lot of instances you may just fit in. Most of us were born bald and everyone thought we were beautiful then. Personally I think bald is beautiful. Besides your smile is what is going to stand out the most.