What makes the difference between those who develop cancer and those who don’t?
In the last few months, two of my clients both in their mid-50s were diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.
Both cases were caught early, and while surgery is still pending, it’s likely they’ll have a lumpectomy and possibly some lymph nodes removed.
Whether they’ll need chemotherapy or radiation is still unknown.
Their diagnoses prompted me to reflect:
What patterns am I seeing?
What can I learn from these and past experiences to share?
Research has shown a clear link between chronic infections like Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV/Mono), autoimmune conditions, and cancer.
Both of these women had multiple viral infections over the last few years, were diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis within the last 5 years and had a decent amount of stress in their lives.
I believe how life’s stress is managed has a huge impact on the immune system too and why some individuals develop cancers and others do not (I’ll get to that in a bit).
One was using low-dose bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (patch + progesterone).
The other had not yet reached menopause.
I don’t believe HRT was the trigger here.
What stands out to me is the chronic viral infections and autoimmune conditions connection.
A March 2025 article from the Sjogren’s Foundation reported a 19.1% annual increase in autoimmune diseases.
📖 Read the article here.
That’s staggering.
Viruses disrupt the immune system and create confusion within the immune system.
This cellular confusion makes it harder for your body to attack the virus without harming itself.
When the body starts to attack it’s own cells autoimmune conditions ensue and can lead to the development of cancer.
Now add multiple vaccines into the mix, each giving the immune system additional instructions, and things can get even more complicated.
I can’t stay silent on this any longer.
If you want to live well and longer it’s crucial to support your immune system and rethink how you approach vaccines.
They do not build your immune system, they over-ride your built in immunity.
And in some cases they have the potential to confuse the immune system further.
Viruses like EBV have been linked to cancer for decades.
Here’s a January 2025 research article that shows this connection.
The pandemic exposed many to long-term viral symptoms and a lot of stress.
Some of you are still fighting them maybe without even knowing it.
Your Complete Blood Count (CBC) might be quietly revealing the truth.
If your lymphocytes are consistently higher than your neutrophils, you’re likely battling a chronic infection.
Same goes for when neutrophils and lymphocytes are close in number.
Normal CBC levels will show neutrophils higher than lymphocytes by double or one-third.
For example:
- neutrophils at 55 and lymphocytes at 27 would be a normal variance
- neutrophils at 45 and lymphocytes at 40 could indicate a chronic infection lingering.
A caveat here would be if you’ve just completed a strenuous workout prior to having your labs drawn, ran a marathon or competed in an Iron Man within a week or so then you may have this pattern because the body is working to heal.
You want to look through multiple of your CBC results to see if there are patterns as this flip on the lymphocytes and neutrophils often shows up when someone is in a flare up of the chronic condition.&nb
This flare up is often termed a “re-activation”.
Common cul
– HSV1/HSV2 – cold sores or genital herpes
– EBV (Mono) – often picked up in adolescence
– CMV (Cytomegalovirus) – very common, rarely diagnosed
📖 CMV article here.
If you grew up in the ‘70s or ‘80s, you may have gone to a chickenpox party to get the virus to develop your immunity to it.
That same virus can return as shingles when stress compromises your immune system after 40.
You can test for past viral infections, but it won’t necessarily change treatment.
These viruses aren’t treated differently that often, what matters here is you can keep them at bay by regulating your immune system and one of those key immune regulators is your nervous system.
The last five years of pandemic chaos and these two clients have shown me this:
Your immune system is only as strong as your nervous system is regulated.
When you’re stuck in fight, flight, fawn, or freeze mode, your immune system can’t work properly. And that’s where illness can begin.
I believe this is one key reason why some people get cancer and others do not.
My aim isn’t to stress anyone out further with these connections but bring awareness to work to prevent stress, infections and any autoimmune conditions from creating immune imbalances.
Tomorrow, I’ll share my top tools to support immune + nervous system health, the foundations for building long-term resilience.
Stay tuned,
Dr. Jannine Krause
