Alcohol and the heart
	Alcohol and cancer
	Women and Alcohol
	Alcohol and diabetes
	Drinking as you get older?
	Alcohol and it's effects
	Alcohol and the liver
	Alcohol and allergies
What the Doctor says

Perhaps no illness is more feared in the developed world than cancer as few direct causes have been identified, with the exception of cigarette smoking. However, research is increasingly showing that obesity, poor diet, lack of exercise and heavy alcohol consumption increase our risk of contracting cancers of several kinds.

Alcohol and cancer is a sensitive area, and certainly there is an increased risk of many cancers if consumers regularly drink more than moderately.However, the diseases where alcohol poses ‘significant risk’ at moderate levels or consumption are rare with the exception of breast cancer. The four leading cancers in the UK are prostate, lung, colon and breast cancers. As with mot issues regarding alcohol – it is how much that is drunk that is important

For example: ‘alcohol as a cause of cancer’ published by the Australian Cancer Institute concluded that moderate alcohol consumption two drinks of alcohol (10g) per day does not increase the risk of cancer in general. However, four drinks per day increases the risk of cancer by 22%. High alcohol consumption (8 daily drinks) increases the risk of cancer at any site by 90%. Evidence is clear, that alcohol is carcinogenic for some types of cancer, and that the risk is dose dependent. Homepage: www.cancerinstitute.org.au (http://www.cancerinstitute.org.au/cancer_inst/publications/pdfs/ pm-2008-03_alcohol-as-a-cause-of-cancer.pdf) The full 500+ page report is available on the internet at www.dietandcancerreport.org/?p=ER.

What the experts say...…

Sir Richard Doll, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, concluded that:

“Of all lifestyle factors related to cancer, alcohol is a modest attributable risk at 4-6%, while the attributable risk for cigarette smoking is approximately 30% and that for diet is 20-50%.”

Please visit the gateway to sensible drinking and health via www.alcoholinmoderation.com for specific studies and summary papers.

Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is a major cause of mortality amongst women, and individual risk varies according to hereditary genes. Cancer Research UK estimates that alcohol accounts for approximately 4% of breast cancers in the developed world and that one in eight women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime. Over the past 10 years, the incidence of breast cancer has remained unchanged, although mortality rates have steadily decreased, due to earlier detection and more effective therapy.

A recent UK study by Sir Richard Doll observed that women consuming the equivalent of 1-2 drinks (5-14 g total) per day had an overall increase in risk of 3% of developing breast cancer. This rises to a 32% increase in breast cancer risk for women drinking 35-44 g alcohol/day and a 46% increase for women drinking more. This is much more alcohol than the UK sensible drinking guidelines of 2- 3 units a day.

Studies also show that adequate intake of folate (found in green leaf vegetables, brown bread and cereals as well as in supplement form), may protect women against any increase in breast cancer risk from moderate alcohol consumption.

Balancing the risks and benefits of moderate alcohol drinking, women should remember that the protective effects of alcohol on coronary heart disease and stroke are significant, and that in women, cardiovascular disease is associated with at least ten-times the number of deaths compared with breast cancer..

When set in context by the American Heart Association, heart disease is a far greater killer: 'One in two women will eventually die of heart disease or stroke: one in twenty five will eventually die of breast cancer'. Accordingly, women who are light-to-moderate drinkers tend to live longer than non-drinkers, but there is a significant increase in cancer risk if you regularly drink at levels of above 30g intake of alcohol/day (that's three drinks).

What the experts say...…

These results are put in perspective by the editorial accompanying Sir Richard Doll’s study, entitled ‘Alcohol, tobacco and breast cancer: should alcohol be condemned and tobacco acquitted?’ (Br J Cancer 2002;87…..). Dr. Silva concluded that “Alcohol intake…is likely to account, at present, for a small proportion of breast cancer cases in developed countries, but for women who drink moderately, its lifetime cardio-protective effects probably outweigh its health hazards.” Dr Silva also suggested that moderate drinkers live longer than non-drinkers.

For in-depth information, please visit the AIM-Gateway site at www.aim-digest.com/gateway/

www.crc.org.uk
www.macmillan.org.uk
www.mariecurie.org.uk
institute of cancer research http://www.icr.ac.uk/
www.icr.ac.uk/everyman