After small quantities of alcohol have been considered to improve heart health for such a long time, recent researches show that this also can increase the risk of breast cancer. And one of the largest individual researches focusing on the effects of alcohol reveals that it does not matter what a woman drinks: wine, beer or spirits (liquor)…there will still be a risk of breast cancer.
It's all about the quantity of alcohol and having three or more alcoholic drinks daily has the same effects on increasing the risk for
breast cancer as smoking at least one pack of cigarettes daily.
"Population studies have consistently linked drinking alcohol to an increased risk of female breast cancer, but until now there has been little data, most of it conflicting, about an independent role played by the choice of beverage type," said Dr. Arthur Klatsky, researcher at Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland.
The study was made on the drinking habits of 70,033 multi-ethnic women who were monitored between 1978-1985. By 2004, 2,829 of these women experienced breast cancer. The team compared the total alcohol intake among women who preferred one specific drink to those who had no clear preference. Another analysis took into consideration the possible independent role of the frequency of drinking a specific beverage type.
The researchers also investigated the role of total alcohol intake, compared with women who consumed less than one alcoholic drink daily. When focusing on the link between breast cancer risk and total alcohol ingestion, the researchers discovered that women who drank 1-2 alcoholic drinks daily faced a risk of breast cancer which was 10 % higher, as compared with light drinkers (less than one drink per day).
The danger of breast cancer rose by 30 % in subjects drinking over 3 drinks a day. The risk was the same for age or ethnicity categories.
"Statistical analyses limited to strata of wine preferrers, beer preferrers, spirits preferrers or non-preferrers each showed that heavier drinking - compared to light drinking - was related to breast cancer risk in each group. A 30 % increased risk is not trivial. To put it into context, it is not much different from the increased risk associated with women taking estrogenic hormones. Incidentally, in previous research completed at Kaiser Permanente, we have found that smoking a pack of cigarettes or more per day is related to a similar (30 %) increased risk of breast cancer," Klatsky said.
Even if breast cancer has a genetic path and a low percentage of women are heavy drinkers, 30 % higher risk of breast cancer from heavy drinking could mean about 5 % more women developing breast cancer due to their habit.
"We think that the heart protection benefit from alcohol is real, and is probably derived largely from alcohol-induced higher HDL ('good') cholesterol, reduced blood clotting and reduced diabetes. None of these mechanisms are known to have anything to do with breast cancer. The possible but unproven additional coronary benefit from drinking wine (red or white) may be related to favorable drinking patterns common among wine drinkers or to the favorable traits of wine drinkers, as evidenced by other United States and Danish studies," Klatsky said.
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