People suffering from so-called 'vital exhaustion' don't seem to be at increased risk of developing cancer, a new study shows, according to Reuters. Vital exhaustion is a term coined to describe a collection of symptoms including excessive fatigue, irritability, lack of energy and a sense of demoralization. It has been tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and hypothesized to increase cancer risk. But studies of that notion have had conflicting results. In the current study, Dr. Christoffer Johansen of the Danish Cancer Society in Copenhagen and colleagues found that individuals with the highest vital exhaustion scores were actually at lower risk of cancer than less-exhausted study participants -- although this reduction was of borderline significance from a statistical standpoint. Johansen and his team followed 8527 participants in the Copenhagen City Heart Study, identifying cancer cases through linkage to the Danish Cancer Registry. The average follow-up period was 8.6 years, during which time 12 percent of the study participants developed cancer, the investigators report in the medical journal Cancer. While risky behaviors such as smoking and sedentary lifestyle were more common among the men and women with the highest vital exhaustion scores, these individuals actually were at lower risk for smoking-related cancers. Compared to study participants with the lowest vital exhaustion scores, the most exhausted individuals were 20 percent less likely to develop cancer overall. Vital exhaustion has been linked to increased risk of death from any cause, so it is possible that the most exhausted study participants may have died from other causes before developing cancer, the researchers note. They add, "The findings of the current study correspond to those reported in recent reviews on psychosocial factors and cancer incidence, which concluded that there is no clear evidence for an association between depression and cancer risk."
