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Spirituality can promote the health of breast cancer survivors

#1
C C Offline
https://showme.missouri.edu/2021/spiritu...survivors/

RELEASE: Throughout her 20-year career as a nurse practitioner, Jennifer Hulett noticed survivors of breast cancer would often express gratitude for being alive and mention God or a divine acknowledgement that had improved their health and well-being. Now an assistant professor at the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing, Hulett is researching the benefits of spirituality on improving immune health and reducing stress, as well as the chances of cancer reoccurrence, among breast cancer survivors.

In a recent study, Hulett collected and froze samples of saliva from 41 breast cancer survivors at MU’s Ellis Fischel Cancer Center. She identified breast cancer survivors’ reports of practicing forgiveness and receiving positive social support from their congregation or other social support network were linked with two specific biomarkers, alpha-amylase and interleukin-6. The findings lay the foundation for further examining the role spirituality plays in the health and well-being of both cancer survivors and individuals managing chronic disease.

“Breast cancer survivors are often a highly spiritual group given the trauma they have been through, and we found they often have more positive spiritual beliefs in a loving God or higher power rather than a punitive, punishing God,” Hulett said. “This confirmed what I had previously experienced anecdotally as a nurse. Breast cancer survivors would often express gratitude and contribute their health and well-being to a higher power, and they tended to have better health outcomes as well.”

Hulett’s research builds off previous findings indicating positive spiritual beliefs are associated with healthier levels of cortisol, a biomarker commonly associated with stress, among breast cancer survivors. “Cortisol and stress suggest chronic inflammation, and anything we can do to lower levels of stress and inflammation will have a good effect on a patient’s longevity, health outcomes and reduced risk of reoccurring disease,” Hulett said. “We often hear about diet and exercise in promoting physical health, but we rarely hear about the importance of managing stress, and all three are connected with well-being.”

One in eight women develop breast cancer at some point in their lives, and previous studies show chronic stress in breast cancer survivors is linked with increased inflammation and risk for cancer reoccurrence. “We know cortisol is linked with stress, and elevated levels of the immune biomarker interleukin 6 suggests inflammation,” Hulett said. “By first finding out which biomarkers are meaningful to look at, we can then see how they are potentially influenced by various spiritual or mindfulness practices aimed at reducing inflammation.”

Hulett’s research sets the foundation for future research that evaluates the effectiveness of spiritual and mindfulness interventions, including daily prayer, mediation, yoga and relaxation, on health outcomes among cancer survivors and individuals with chronic disease.

“We already know these interventions improve mental health, but they might also improve physical health as well, and we can try to prove it by looking at these physiological biomarkers,” Hulett said. “These spiritual interventions are what nurses can use at the bedside to quickly implement if they see patients struggling to cope with their illness. Any evidence-based solutions we can equip nurses with will help improve patient health outcomes, and that is where these mind-body interventions can play a role going forward.”

Associations between religious and spiritual variables and neuroimmune activity in survivors of breast cancer: a feasibility study” was recently published in Supportive Care in Cancer. Funding for the study was provided by the National Institute of Nursing Research and the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center Donor Fund.
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#2
Leigha Offline
Not surprising, seeing that spirituality provides an overall sense of well being and peace, in general. I was reading an article about evolution and spirituality/religious beliefs, and how it's quite possible that without spirituality, many societies wouldn't have survived as long as they did.
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#3
Zinjanthropos Offline
Quote:“Breast cancer survivors are often a highly spiritual group given the trauma they have been through, and we found they often have more positive spiritual beliefs in a loving God or higher power rather than a punitive, punishing God,” Hulett said. “This confirmed what I had previously experienced anecdotally as a nurse. Breast cancer survivors would often express gratitude and contribute their health and well-being to a higher power, and they tended to have better health outcomes as well.”


They weren’t spiritual before they contracted the disease??? 

Sounds like something akin to the placebo effect and perhaps looked into. Whatever helps. Having experienced cancer twice and winning so far at least, I can relate to telling my health care workers several times that I appreciated the efforts they were making to save/prolong my life. I think it made them feel even more dedicated to me making it out alive. So perhaps the spiritual end promotes better health care from people saving your life....anyone ever think of that? Positive reinforcement. 

Not being a god person, I guess I actually put faith in the medical system and all the knowledge our species has garnered over the centuries. Maybe if a few anti vaxxers thought same way it might help.
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#4
Leigha Offline
They might have been spiritual beforehand but sometimes, people find hope and comfort in faith/spirituality during challenging times. Reminds me of the aphorism “there’s no atheists in foxholes.”
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#5
Zinjanthropos Offline
(Sep 11, 2021 05:41 PM)Leigha Wrote: They might have been spiritual beforehand but sometimes, people find hope and comfort in faith/spirituality during challenging times. Reminds me of the aphorism “there’s no atheists in foxholes.”

Extreme version of Pascal’s Wager if that happens at all. 

A theist could say something along the lines of , “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  Like saying, if god doesn’t interfere in the next few minutes I’m a goner. People find hopelessness in faith also.
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#6
Leigha Offline
(Sep 11, 2021 07:26 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote:
(Sep 11, 2021 05:41 PM)Leigha Wrote: They might have been spiritual beforehand but sometimes, people find hope and comfort in faith/spirituality during challenging times. Reminds me of the aphorism “there’s no atheists in foxholes.”

Extreme version of Pascal’s Wager if that happens at all. 

A theist could say something along the lines of , “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  Like saying, if god doesn’t interfere in the next few minutes I’m a goner. People find hopelessness in faith also.

Yea, we’re all human, faith isn’t a magic elixir that fixes all our mistakes and problems; it’s just where many people find peace and hope - in the idea of a higher power, or in feeling connected to others, believing that life is not only about the physical. Someone’s spiritual path may not involve deities at all.


Pascal’s Wager - I’ve read different interpretations of it, and it’s thought by some that Pascal was mainly targeting “lukewarm” Christians, and not atheists.

I’ve always thought his wager was kind of silly in that you can’t force yourself to believe in something you don’t, and how would you live your life according to a belief that you don’t fully understand? Although there are a lot of go-through-the-motions believers out there who might question their beliefs, but are too afraid to abandon them because of their parents or whatever.
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#7
Zinjanthropos Offline
Quote:I’ve always thought his wager was kind of silly in that you can’t force yourself to believe in something you don’t


Sure you don’t want to rethink ‘ No atheists in foxholes’ comment after that. 

In moments of extreme terror or when life threatened, no one becomes a theist. Invoking God is a long shot bet, if anything for an atheist. JMO Smile
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#8
Magical Realist Online
Quote:I’ve always thought his wager was kind of silly in that you can’t force yourself to believe in something you don’t

It raises the question of how anyone manages to change their beliefs at some point in their life. It's not exactly like you chose to. You flirt with doubts, thinking now and then about objections to your belief. You begin making implicit moral judgements about people who share your belief. That's when your belief stance gradually morphs into a fluid state of agnostic uncertainy, an unsettling phase of transition towards a new stance. Eventually one day you just find you no longer believe as you did and have changed beliefs! It happens to you unawares. The old belief dies and withers away unnoticed, like fruit left too long on the vine.
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#9
Leigha Offline
(Sep 12, 2021 06:40 PM)Magical Realist Wrote:
Quote:I’ve always thought his wager was kind of silly in that you can’t force yourself to believe in something you don’t

It raises the question of how anyone manages to change their beliefs at some point in their life. It's not exactly like you chose to. You flirt with doubts, thinking now and then about objections to your belief. You begin making implicit moral judgements about people who share your belief.  That's when your belief stance gradually morphs into a fluid state of agnostic uncertainy, an unsettling phase of transition towards a new stance. Eventually one day you just find you no longer believe as you did and have changed beliefs! It happens to you unawares. The old belief dies and withers away unnoticed, like fruit left too long on the vine.

I’ve grown to dislike the typical narratives when it comes to “conversion” and “deconversion” that are played by both sides.

You’re right in that what I went through a few years back, was what I’d like to call a “slow fade.” Not really blatantly rejecting “organized religion” and the trappings of it, as much as becoming indifferent towards it. Day by day, just a gradual letting go that was effortless. You’d think there had to be one, defining moment that triggered it, but not really. Honestly, I never considered that I could believe in God and not have to attach that belief to an organized religion, so that was a turning point.

Maybe faith/spirituality is comparable to a living organism; it evolves.
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#10
Syne Offline
(Sep 13, 2021 01:59 AM)Leigha Wrote: Maybe faith/spirituality is comparable to a living organism; it evolves.

Both our historical conception of god (from many with human weaknesses and motives to a single objective observer) and our personal (as we ween from the childhood primer of needing to be told what our relationship with god is) evolve if we're growing. Even those who stay affiliated with a particular denomination should, ideally, continue to develop their understanding.
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