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Even if health experts say that one alcoholic drink (15 g) for women and two glasses of an alcoholic drink (30 grams) for men is allowed, a new study shows that this is not true for everyone.
Women who have a history of breast cancer in the family should avoid any type of alcoholic drinks regardless of the quantity. Even light drinking was associated with a heightened risk of developing breast tumors in such women if they chose to have an alcoholic drink every day.
As far as men are concerned, drinking exposes them as well, but only if they combine it with smoking.
The study, whose results were published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), also reveals that a lot of forms of cancers can be linked to alcohol consumption. Other experts agree with this theory as well, saying that almost four percent of cancers worldwide can be associated with drinking alcohol in excess.
The American researchers involved in this study work for Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. They looked at the data of more than 80,000 women and almost 48,00 men, whom they monitored for about three decades.
Over the follow-up period of time, about 20,000 women and 8,000 men were diagnosed with cancer. Even if the results were not extremely significant, they concluded that light to moderate drinking could be linked to various types of cancers in both women and men. However, smoking enhanced the risk especially for men.
Women were more exposed to cancer regardless of them being smokers or not. The most common type of cancer detected in women was breast cancer, with an increased risk for those who had family members diagnosed with such a tumor.
Thus, it is highly recommended that these women reduce their consumption of alcohol and try to quit smoking as soon as possible in order to avoid suffering from breast cancer.
Right now, it is estimated that breast cancer is the most common invasive type of cancer in women. A couple of years ago, it comprised a quarter of the cancers diagnosed in women.
Even if this is not the first study that looks at the relationship between drinking alcohol and cancer, it sheds further light on this association and it might provide useful advice for people all over the world.
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