Positive Thinking and Cancer; Report Suggests There is No Benefit from Thinking Positively

The relationship between positive thinking and cancer might not be as clear cut as many of us think. Research suggests taking a positive approach does not increase life expectancy.

I am a big fan of positive thinking. This is something that I've seen work. My life has hit some real low points. I ended up a homeless drunk in my mid-twenties, but managed to go from there to university. I now have a wonderful life, and I'm convinced that a lot of this has to do with a change in my thinking. During the worst periods my way of looking at the world was very negative, but these days I always try and look for the positive; it works for me. I have also worked in hospitals and seen with my own eyes how patients who are positive tend to recover quicker. I have even seen some very ill people, who the medical team had more or less given up, go on to make a full recovery; these people seemed to use their own positivity to turn the corner. It would make sense to me that combining positive thinking and cancer would extend life.

I was listening to a recent episode of BBC health check online and it contained an interview with an American journalist Barbara Enrenreich . She was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. During the interview Enrenreich was very critical of positive thinking. She claims that when she was diagnosed with cancer that people tried to bully her into staying positive. It is her view that this pressure to be positive is bad for patients because it makes them feel guilty about feeling depressed and it makes them blame themselves when cancer comes back. In her previous writing Enrenreich claims that positive thinking is the cause of many problems in the world today - including the economic downturn.

Enrenreich points out that recent research from Australia proves that positive thinking does not help people beat cancer. This was a study that looked at a 179 patients with lung cancer over five years. It found that the optimistic participants did not live any longer than other participants. It also suggested that the pressure to be positive could negatively impact people with the disease.

I appreciate what Barbara Enrenreich is saying; I really do. No attempts should be made to make people feel guilty about how they react to things. I still think though that positivity has a lot to offer; even if it doesn't help people live longer. This view is supported by the American Cancer Society who responded to the study by explaining how a positive attitude can improve quality of life. If people feel positive they might also be more willing to do things like exercise and eat a healthy diet; things that almost certainly can help.

My view on positive thinking is not going to change on the basis of one small study about positive thinking and cancer. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to support the approach. More importantly I have seen it with my own eyes and experienced it in my own life. I do feel that Barbara Enrenreich has raised some vital arguments that should not be ignored. For that reason I personally feel that the choice to approach a disease positively should be a personal one unless there is some good evidence to support its benefit. I hope that I would react to a diagnosis to cancer by trying to cultivate a positive outlook - of course you can never really know how you will react to things until they happen.

Sources

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/5780.php

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/143187/barbara_ehrenreich:_the_relentless_promotion_of_positive_thinking_has_undermined_america

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005sl6d