Mother Talkers

Moderate Drinking Linked With Breast Cancer

by Elisa

Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 01:22:02 PM PDT

Even moderate drinking increases a woman's risk of breast cancer, according to a story in the Washington Post.

A recent Harvard study of 878 people found that nearly two-thirds of drinkers and about a third of teetotalers considered such imbibing to be safe and healthful. So healthful that about 30 percent of those surveyed said the purported health benefits of alcohol are one reason they drink.

The link between alcohol and breast cancer is something that "almost nobody in the study had heard about," says the survey's lead author, Kenneth Mukamal, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. Only 10 percent correctly identified breast cancer as a possible risk of moderate drinking, the researchers reported in the journal Family Medicine.

I, too, thought an occasional glass of wine -- although I tend to drink like once a month, if that, at this point -- was good for me. Remember all the hoopla surrounding red wine's benefits for the heart? As it turns out alcohol consumption is so potent that it can catch  up to you later on in life, according to the Post.

These results offer a cautionary note for younger women and underscore that it's never too early to go easy on alcohol. The researchers tracked nearly 10,000 women for 27 years. They found that the amount of alcohol the women consumed when the study began, rather than after menopause, correlated best with their breast cancer risk nearly three decades later.

If women do drink, there's widespread agreement that they should avoid having more than one drink per day. (A drink is 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits such as whiskey, tequila or vodka.) Just that amount of alcohol translates to "about a 10 percent increased risk of breast cancer," says Eric Rimm, an associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

This story is one of those health myth-debunkers that is good to know.

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Tags: moderate drinking, alcohol, consumption, Washington Post, red wine, breast cancer (all tags)

Permalink | 15 comments

  • I suppose you can all predict (0 / 0)

    my reaction to this.  

    "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly"

    by lonestar canuck on Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 01:27:49 PM PDT

  • For goodness sake (0 / 0)

    Everything, it seems, except for plain old water is bad.  I hardly drink but I like my diet soda and that's bad.  Regular soda with sugar or HFCS is bad.  Coffee or tea with all of that caffeine is bad.  

    We're taking a risk every time we drink anything but water is the message I'm getting.  Flavor that damned water and you're digging your grave.

    by music teacher on Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 02:19:06 PM PDT

    • I like my diet coke, too. (0 / 0)

      And sugar is a big no-no for me, so I get tired of  hearing how bad all the artificial sweeteners are.

      I think we have to weigh risk factors.  My chances of heart disease are 100 percent.  My chance of developing breast cancer?  Not high.  I had children fairly young, breast fed, and other than using birth control pills a few years, have not used any other estrogens.  I'm not overweight and I don't have a family history of breast cancer or any other type of cancer for that matter.

      by tjb22 on Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 03:05:52 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

      • risk assessment (0 / 0)

        Weighing the risk factors is exactly the right way to think about it.  I'm deeply concerned about artificial sweeteners; I really think this topic is going to blow up on us in a few years.  BUT if sugar is a known problem for you than obviously the artificial sweeteners are a better choice than a known toxic substance.  And if you already have heart disease you know where to focus your efforts - you're not the average person, so the average recommendation may not apply to you.

        by lyn on Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 05:50:36 PM PDT

        [ Parent ]

    • Water's bad too! (0 / 0)

      If it's tap it's got lead from the pipes or cryptosporidium from improper treatment or mercury or...If it's bottled it kills the environment and plastic from the bottle leaches into it and it may or may not just be tap water anyway.

      Sigh.

      by Stacie on Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 04:19:35 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

    • Remeber the report last month? about the drug (0 / 0)

      levels in tap water?

      by OldMother on Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 04:32:14 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

      • yeah but we can do something about that (0 / 0)

        that's very real. But it's important to know and pressure the govt for regulations to get the drugs out of our water. unlike wine, where to remove the alcohol removes the point :)

        if you wobba cypress trees then I will wobba you

        by thais on Sat Apr 26, 2008 at 09:01:12 AM PDT

        [ Parent ]

  • which one (0 / 0)

    raises your chance of cancer MORE... a glass of wine or the kind of stress that makes you want to rip your husband's head off his shoulders?

    if you wobba cypress trees then I will wobba you

    by thais on Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 02:32:38 PM PDT

  • I'll raise my glass of red wine to this (0 / 0)

    Yeah, breast cancer risk goes up.  So does esophageal, and (I think) maybe colon.  Most other cancers are unaffected, probably a couple go down some miniscule amount.  And CVD does go down in red wine drinkers.  Which are you more worried about?

    We aren't ever going to come up with an "optimum" diet; it just doesn't work like that.  I think Michael Pollan has it exactly right.  Eat a diverse, moderate diet.  Keep meat consumption down.  If you have known, specific risks, adjust accordingly.  Beyond that, don't sweat the "nutrients", just try to eat sensibly.    

    by lyn on Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 05:40:19 PM PDT

  • I'm going to die of something (0 / 0)

    And I'd be willing to bet that it's 100% certain it will be for a reason I would be completely surprised by and couldn't have prepared for.  So as long as I'm not doing anything completely irresponsible and dangerous, I'm just going to live my life.  I live in the Twin Cities, where people driving home from work one night last summer fell into a major river because the bridge collapsed under them.  No amount of regulating your food, activity, or lifestyle is going to counteract something like that.

    by cynmill on Sat Apr 26, 2008 at 08:37:03 AM PDT

  • Try living with a cancer researcher and expert (0 / 0)

    Well, I do!  Actually, it is quite comforting because he puts all of the risks in perspective for me.  

    Just remember---not everything gives you cancer.  And there are lots of things to do to prevent or overide the risks.  Eat your broccoli!

    by janetle on Sat Apr 26, 2008 at 01:44:13 PM PDT

  • I drink wine at least 3-4 times a week (0 / 0)

    at night -- and yes I have more than one glass on more than one occassion and yes my mother died of breast cancer and  yes so did her mother but for the love of god people you just can NOT make a 1/2 italian single mother give up that glass of sweet red comfort at the end of the day LOL.

    Look. I'm fat. I'm old. I drink wine. I have every conceivable kind of cncer in my family.  Did I mention I'm fat and old too?   The decks' already stacked against me so I might as well take a good glass of shiraz with me.

    by MKatherine1966 on Sun Apr 27, 2008 at 06:23:42 PM PDT

Permalink | 15 comments