Mind Over Cancer?

People have believed for centuries that the power of the human mind can have an effect on physical well-being. Now new - and controversial - research seems to back this up in the case of cancer.

The new research, published in BioMed Central, studied "the relationship between life events, psychological distress and Breast Cancer (BC) among young women." The researchers found that young women who suffered traumatic negative emotional events were more at risk of developing breast cancer later in life than those who maintained a happy, optimistic attitude.

This conclusion does, however, come with a major health warning of its own: the women were questioned about their early emotional state after their diagnosis. It's possible that being diagnosed as having cancer may have affected their view of their past emotional state, something that's hard to measure objectively at the best of times.

So this research is inconclusive, however it's yet more evidence that the possible link between mind and body is at least interesting enough to deserve further study.