King Charles’ cancer diagnosis did come as a shocker for many. Despite our medical advances, cancer is often fatal in the long run. Thus, the news of someone having cancer brings on a sense of doom. One feels a deep sense of powerlessness at the thought of its possible outcome. A vibrant life is prematurely cut short.
There is media chatter insinuating that his prodigal son Prince Harry is to blame for his father’s health condition.
No doubt, King Charles has been under extreme stress ever since Harry married his Diana-faking wife, Meghan Markle.
Additionally, Charles had to deal with his ailing parents and their subsequent demise. During this difficult time, he had to contend with Harry’s steady barrage of vitriolic whining plus his dreadful wife’s accusations of racism.
During all these extremely overwhelming circumstances, Charles had to maintain a stiff upper lip and carry on. Furthermore, at the ripe old age of 73, he had to assume the responsibilities of the new monarch of the United Kingdom. All the while the shenanigans of his son and wife kept being played out on the world stage.
The anxiety and trepidation of waking up to another book, another interview, another documentary, all trying to discredit the royal family, must have been intense.
Unresolved Interpersonal Stress
Often, it is not the work-related stress that harms us most, it’s the unresolved interpersonal conflicts with the people closest to us that fry our nervous system. Interpersonal neurobiology is a proven fact. People you aren’t close to cannot hurt you as much because your brain schemas are not intertwined with them.
It’s the betrayal of our trust that rips us to our core.
Charles must have least expected this of his son who until his marriage had a fairly warm and amiable relationship with him. Then wham, the knife was plugged right into his heart without any warning. A clean cut hurts very much but it’s over.
But what Harry and his malignant wife are doing is death by a thousand cuts. There’s no resolution, no appeasing. The attacks keep coming at regular intervals. Surely, Charles must be raging and must have wanted to retaliate but had to repress his feelings to avoid any further damage to the Royal Family’s reputation
It has been proven that the repression of anger leads to the chronic secretion of stress hormones like cortisol, that suppress our immune system. The body’s defenses are lowered against infection from the outside or malignant changes from within.
Eventually, one will develop a disease or mental health condition
Gabor Maté – Stress and The Immune System
There’s only so much stress your body can withstand, eventually your body says no more – I can’t take this anymore and breaks down.
Harry’s favorite therapist, Gabor Maté in his book The Body Says No, explores the link between stress and disease. Maté has been one of the pioneers in the study of psychoneuroimmunology – how emotions affect one’s physiology.
Modern medical science often tries to reassure us that our minds and bodies are separate – when, in reality, they’re deeply interconnected. Mental stresses often play out in the body as physiological diseases, disorders, and chronic conditions that endanger our health and well-being.
It’s our emotional experiences that impact the body’s immune system and ultimately lead to illness rather than our genes.
My Genetic History
As someone who grew up around cancer, I completely lean towards the emotional model of disease. My mother developed breast cancer when she was in her early thirties. I was around 3 years.
Even though she had a double mastectomy and lived a fairly normal life post her cancer diagnosis, the disease reoccurred in her uterus. She had to undergo a complete hysterectomy. I was 9.
My father the malevolent, heartless, lout refused to allow my mother to go to her mom’s place which was close to our home to recuperate. As a result, my mother had to struggle alone not even having the basic amenities like a western commode for toilet. She had to squat in the Indian toilet with her abdominal stitches still unhealed, they opened and she had her insides falling out when she had to be taken for an emergency re-surgery.
She nearly died but miraculously pulled through. From there it was downhill. My personality-disordered father played the role of the poor soul who had a dying wife and 2 small kids like a pro. Heartlessly, he did not try to improve his attitude or behavior toward my dying mother. She died at 4o. I was 11.
My Mother’s History
Dr. Gabor Maté states that:
“We know that childhood stress and trauma cause physiological changes, it changes how your genes work, it changes how your immune system works, it increases inflammation and promotes the onset of disease including cancer.”
My mother’s childhood history was hardly ideal. The eldest girl child of 8 children with an aloof, self-centered, distant father and a mother who was burdened with the responsibilities of child-rearing with no help from the father. I’m sure my mother had to step in as be surrogate caregiver and help her mother. That’s what my grandmother expected of me, the eldest granddaughter when she had to care for my cousins, while she was busy trying out recipes or being the village healer.
My grandmother being a covert narcissist could do no wrong. If you dared point out her mistakes, she’d go into a silent rage and would be banished from her favor. My guess is my mother couldn’t wait to escape from her depressing, stifling home life.
Unfortunately, she hooked up with my father, a glib-talking narcissist who showed his true colors only after marriage. It must have been a rude awakening to realize that the man she staked her happiness on was an unfeeling uncaring bully.
King Charles’ History
According to reports King Charles had a very lonely childhood. When he was just one year old, his mother, Queen Elizabeth left him with nannies and his grandparents to go on a long tour. Further foreign trips followed in quick succession. Charles, a sensitive boy was expected from a young age to be tough and not show weakness. After all, he was going to be King one day. At age 8, he was sent to boarding school where he was bullied.
Charles grew up in an environment where talking about feelings was frowned upon. Instead like all royals, he was expected to “Never complain, never explain“.
As an adult, he was always expected to toe the line which led to him having to give up the love of his life, Camilla. This led to his disastrous marriage to the immature and emotionally unstable Diana. Their acrimonious divorce led to the tarnishing of Charles’ image, which must have deeply affected him. The shame of his ex-wife publicly stating, ‘my husband is not fit to be King.
Despite all these reputation slurs, after Diana’s death, Charles made a real effort to build a relationship with his sons.
All was well until Harry decided a bi-racial, malignantly ambitious, American divorcee was a good fit for his very traditional British Royal Family. There were rumors of Meghan’s demanding and abusive behavior before the marriage. Then came Megxit and their break from the Royal family which was followed by a slew of scathing accusations. Topping it all was the naming of King Charles and his daughter-in-law, Catherine as being the royal racists.
Stress and Scoliosis
It was only after my mother’s death, that I experienced the full extent of my father’s perniciousness. He was a bubbling cauldron of hate. It was only then I realized the horror of my mom’s existence. Nothing was good enough for my father. The unreasonable criticism, the unbridled rage, and the coercive control were now transferred onto me.
Two years post my mother’s death I developed idiopathic scoliosis. No one in my family, both maternal and paternal has had scoliosis.
At 29, I escaped from my father’s toxicity into the arms of a man I believed was my knight in shining armor. The relationship turned out to be another replay of Daddy drama. Thankfully it was of a milder form.
Providentially, his unexpected death led to my liberation. I was able to live without the constant dread of upsetting anyone. And slowly my mind and body have been healing.
The Angelina Jolie Effect -BRCA gene
Today, at 56 I am fairly healthy, aside from my scoliosis which has improved substantially. No one on my mother’s side developed cancer, not her mother, not her 3 sisters (I’ve had no contact since quite a few years) at least at that young age that my mother did. I blame my father for her untimely death.
According to research, the BRCA gene (‘BReast CAncer gene), has been found to impact a person’s chances of developing breast and ovarian cancer. Earlier, I did fear having the cancer gene but once I crossed my 40s I heaved a sigh of relief. I was alive.
It isn’t our genes but the environment that could precipitate the development of most diseases.
Angelina Jolie who carries this BRCA gene as did her mother who died of breast cancer at 56 opted for a preventive double mastectomy in March 2015. She also decided to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to reduce her risk of developing ovarian cancer.
Jolie went public with her op-ed in the New York Times which inspired unnecessary BRCA tests which may have also led to numerous unwarranted surgeries.
No One Factor- Correlation Doesn’t Imply Causation
No one has been able to pinpoint the actual cause of cancer, aside from actually ingesting or living in highly toxic chemical contamination à la the Erin Brockovich, toxic groundwater case which caused numerous cancer deaths, or the Hiroshima/Nagasaki atomic bomb radiation fall-out which led to increased cases of cancer.
Barring aside obvious reasons for cancer developing, one will never know what triggers the body’s cells to begin growing uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body. It can start anywhere and can disrupt the orderly process of cell division.
There is no one reason for cancer. It’s usually a combination of emotional and physical reasons. Everyone is different. Two people who have the same cancer can have it for different reasons.
Just because your parents had cancer or you have the gene doesn’t mean that you are 100% going to get cancer
Correlation doesn’t imply causation. Correlation shows a predisposition for causation but it’s not conclusive evidence.
Bruce Lipton – Genes Don’t Cause Cancer
Genes by themselves do not get activated. It’s the environment that causes epigenetic changes leading to mutations of the genes. Moreso, it’s our consciousness/perception (glass half-full or half-empty mindset ) that interprets our environment and controls our genetics.
If we’re not living authentically, suppressing our true feelings our minds and bodies will be thrown into disarray. Repressed emotions such as anger, fear, or sadness trigger the release of toxic chemicals like cortisol in our bodies. It’s these chemicals that can engage a gene that’s called an oncogene. A cancer cell that has a genetic potential to become cancer, but the gene doesn’t cause cancer. It’s our environment that predisposes us to develop cancer.
Cancer, when it manifests, is a symptom of us being at dis-ease.
So, according to Lipton, if we want to change cancer, we must rewrite our consciousness
Living Free Of Toxicity
Living in today’s high-stress and polluted world the risk of cancer has increased. However, those of us at ‘average’ risk of cancer, can be proactive in combating any potential risks – living a healthy lifestyle, being alert to symptoms of the disease, and seeing a specialist ASAP if we notice unusual physical changes.
Most important, is managing our interpersonal stressors firmly and adequately.
King Charles’ Cutting Down Stress
It seems cancer-stricken King Charles has decided not to be pulled into his son’s media-driven optics when he visited him. Charles granted Harry just half an hour (some podcasters claim it was just 10 minutes) audience to keep his stress levels down. What a slap on his face it must have been to Harry who flew 5,000 miles from the U.S. to visit his ailing father.
When it comes to something as life-threatening as cancer, one has to stop giving a f**k about anyone else’s feelings and prioritize one’s own.
I wish my mother was brave enough to push back on my father’s fiendish behavior and take back her power instead of being the nice, polite, long-suffering woman. It sure did kill her.
We Are The Placebo
Belief plays a big role in our health and happiness. Simply believing things will improve creates a placebo effect in our minds. How we perceive situations, influences how our mind and body respond. The more strongly we believe in positive outcomes the better the chances of things working out.
Of course, all positive thinking must be backed by positive action. You must take steps to improve all aspects of your life – beginning with diet, exercise, and stress management. Taking a holistic approach is the best way to tackle any disease.
Thankfully, our genes are not set in stone. The science of epigenetics proves that we can undo the ravages of stress-induced genetic mutations.
Illness is our body’s way of saying that we need to take it easy and come into alignment with what is good for us. It’s an enforced recalibration. Of sifting out what’s not good for us and nurturing what nourishes us. When we prioritize ourselves and what matters to us, our chances of healing improve exponentially.
Charles and his doctors are very positive about his prognosis. Let’s pray and hope he can beat the deadly disease.
