Reducing Risklimit Alcohol Intake - Chapter 3 Reducing Your Cancer Risk: Cancer

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Reducing risk-Limit alcohol intake

Drink to your health? Not when it's alcohol. Drinking alcohol contributes to many health problems, including a number of cancers. The degree of risk and mechanism of action depends on the type of cancer, but there is always some risk, and it increases the more you drink.

Alcohol has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen (the most dangerous type) for cancers of the esophagus, larynx, liver, mouth, and pharynx. The evidence is convincing that the more you drink, the greater your chances of developing these cancers. Drinkers who also smoke are at greatest risk. The reason could have to do with the effect of the alcohol alone, or it might reflect that people who smoke and drink regularly tend to eat less nutritious diets - and consume fewer fruits and vegetables - than do teetotalers and nonsmokers.

Alcohol consumption also moderately increases the chance of developing breast and colorectal cancers.

So should you avoid drinking altogether? To keep your risk of cancer as low as possible, the short answer is yes. But as is often the case when discussing diet and disease prevention, a longer answer is required. Other studies have shown that moderate drinking (a drink a day for women or two a day for men) can reduce the risk of heart disease, which is still the nation's leading killer.

As mentioned above, the greatest risk in drinking is faced by smokers. One respected team of researchers concluded that although alcohol consumption is responsible for 3% of cancer deaths each year in the United States, many of those deaths could have been prevented if the drinkers had stopped smoking.

Your decision to drink may also depend on your family or personal medical history. If breast cancer runs in your family, for instance, or if you are particularly concerned about your risk, it makes sense to not drink or at least limit consumption. But as always, keep the risk in perspective: one drink a day only slightly increases the risk of breast cancer.

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Last updated:	May 01, 2008