Can Xanax or Valium prevent heart attacks or cancer?

I am not a doctor.

As far as heart disease, I would say sort of. When my dad was diagnosed with severe blockage in his left main artery leaving the heart (which is nicknamed the widowmaker) the doc gave him some Xanax to take for the next week before he was scheduled for surgery. The doctor didn’t want my dad to be stressed and trigger an event. My dad had not asked for it, and he says he felt no different taking the medication.

Thing is bensos are very addictive, and using them on a regular basis is not a good idea for a lot of reasons. The worst thing is once addicted, you either need more, or if God forbid you miss a dose or two the rebound anxiety is very bad, sudden withdrawal can be downright dangerous. A pill or two here and there during temporary times of great stress is probably fine though, and I think possibly beneficial.

Cancer I really doubt. I guess if we argue stress hampers the immune system then maybe it affects cancer, but I doubt there is a big influence directly related to cancer. Stomach upset hasn’t been linked to stomach cancer nor colon cancer as far as I know. A lot of stomach and upper digestive problems are related to H. Pylori the bacteria, stress causing ulcers and some other problems in the digestve track is less and less considered the priary culprit. Thanks goodness. Every time they dismiss an ailment as stress, is another time science does not look for a true underlying cause and blames the patient.

I do agree stress contributes to health problems, but I also firmly believe there is something usually present causing the illness in the first place, and stress just exaggerates the problem or let’s it reveal itself.

I would think any illness that is strongly correlated with stress or anxiety could be improved by reducing the anxiety, including with medication.

Circulatory conditions like high blood pressure can certainly be related to stress, cancer not so much.

It used to be believed that stomach ulcers were caused by stress, but this isn’t true. Usually there’s an underlying condition involved. The underlying condition might be aggravated by stress, though.

Overall it’s not healthy to be stressed out all the time. Whether it’s more healthy to medicate, though, is going to depend on just how big of a problem the stress actually is. Obviously using heavy medication isn’t always the healthiest choice, either.

No.

Valium might dampen blood pressure spikes somewhat.

To be clear, by “No.” I mean that to my knowledge there is no double blinded placebo controlled randomized control trial of either Xanax or Valium that shows any evidence that either drug will prevent myocardial infarctions or cancer.

@Rarebear I was just googling and this shows that some scientists seem to be considering doing studies.

@JLeslie That paper was looked like it was an opinion piece from a psychiatric journal 22 years ago. I’d like to see something more substantial than that.

@Rarebear I wasn’t trying to claim bensos are a legitimate treatment, only letting you know that there might be studies dine in the future. That abstract in no way is a scientific study supporting the idea, I understand that.

Since benzos have such a pernicious addiction propensity, I would think that the risks far outweigh any benefit in terms of longterm use (different from a short pre-surgery period of time)

Besides, aren’t there plenty of other modern meds in the SSRI category which are effective in lessening anxiety on a long term basis? Even if there were some type of study which showed a positive effect on heart attack prevention for benzos wouldn’t they be considered only after every other non-addictive alternative proved ineffective?

Positing cancer prevention is really quite a stretch. A bridge too far IMHO.

Kind of has a flavor of an addicts rationalization attempt to explain. Just my take on it, FWIW.