Multiple researchers discover link of cancer and any type of alcohol

Multiple researchers discover link of cancer and any type of alcohol

Source: WebMD
Summary: Medical Discoveries
Date: Sept 2007

Whatever your pleasure -- beer, wine, or spirits -- more than three daily drinks ups your risk of breast cancer by 30%. Red wine, white wine, whatever health benefits you think it will bring you, is cancelled by increase cancer risk and other diseases.

"It doesn't matter if you drink red wine or white wine. If you are a heavy drinker -- more than three drinks a day -- you will have an additional 30% risk of breast cancer," said Dr. Yan Li, MD, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente.

Li and researchers looked at 70,000 women in a study from 1978 to 1985. They then analyzed to see if they had breast cancer by 2004. Women who drank one or two drinks a day had a 10% higher chance of breast cancer than women who drank less than a drink a day. But it took more than three drinks a day to increase that risk to 30%.

Shumin Zhang, MD, ScD, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School did not participate in the research, but has also found that frequent drinking raises a woman's risk of breast cancer.

"Many studies have reported an association between alcohol consumption and breast cancer risk in women," Zhang tells WebMD. "The current findings are generally consistent with previous research."

In short, women aren't the only ones at risk. Alcohol is an equal opportunity killer, studies show that men are also in danger of increased chances of cancer if they drink alcohol.