Alcohol Linked To Breast Cancer Risk

sardinianwineMost people want to believe that wine and alcohol are good for us-especially because drinking is an enjoyment in most cultures. According to Beyond The Mediterranean Diet: European Secrets Of The Super-Healthy, French, Italians and Swiss sip their wine in moderation and have longer lifespans and less heart disease than most other western cultures. The Italian island of Sardinia is known for the red grape Cannonau and its relative the Grenache grape, both rich in the antioxidant resveratrol, which was supposed to be linked to preventing heart disease. However, research has yet to make any significant health correlations between resveratrol and heart-health in humans.

Recently, researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston used data from two large US studies – the Nurses Health Study for women and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study for men to track the health of 88,084 women and 47,881 men for up to 30 years. The researchers assessed the link between alcohol intake and risk of total cancer as well as known alcohol-related cancers including cancer of the the colorectum, female breast, liver, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx and esophagus.

The results found that light to moderate drinking of alcohol—considered up to one alcoholic drink a day for women–about 4 ounces (118 ml) of wine or a 12-ounce (355 ml) bottle of beer–and up to two drinks a day for men–about two 12-ounce (355 ml) bottles of beer—is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in women and alcohol-related cancers in both women and men.

Smoking when paired with alcohol appears to have a stronger correlation to cancer risk.

It is unclear how drinking alcohol promotes breast cancer but it may work by raising levels of the hormone estrogen in the body.

The study was published August 18, 2015 in the BMJ.

“Our study reinforces the dietary guidelines that it is important not to go beyond one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men,” lead author Yin Cao, research fellow in the Department of Nutrition, said in an August 18, 2015 interview on Philly.com.

Edward Giovannucci, professor of nutrition and epidemiology, was senior author. Other Department of Nutrition authors included: Walter Willett, Eric Rimm, and Meir Stampfer.

In an accompanying BMJ editorial, Jürgen Rehm of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, recommended women not exceed one standard drink a day and men should not exceed two standard drinks a day. Those with a family history of cancer “should consider reducing their intake to below recommended limits or even abstaining altogether, given the now well established link between moderate drinking and alcohol-related cancers,” Rehm said in a BMJ statement.