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Subscribe to RSSDr. Rache Simmons, chief of breast surgery at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, reports on new findings that light drinkers face an increased risk for a certain type of breast cancer.
Kin Cheung / AP
By Rachel Rettner
MyHealthNewsDaily
Even as few as three alcoholic beverages per week may increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer, a new study finds.
Women in the study who drank three to six glasses of wine per week were 15 percent more likely than those who did not drink to develop breast cancer, researchers found in reviewing data taken over a 28-year period.
The study adds to the growing body of evidence of a link between alcohol consumption and an increased risk of breast cancer. Drinking moderate to high amounts of alcohol has previously been linked with breast cancer risk, but the effects of consuming low amounts of alcohol had been unclear. Alcohol may be increasing breast cancer risk by altering levels of the sex hormone estrogen, the researchers said.
Still, while the increased risk found in this study is real, it is quite small. Women will need to weigh this slight increase in breast cancer risk with the beneficial effects alcohol is known to have on heart heath, said Dr. Wendy Chen, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Any woman's decision will likely factor in her risk of either disease, Chen said.
Chen noted that women who consumed fewer than three drinks per week had no increase in breast cancer risk.
"I don't think the take home message would be that women can't drink at all," Chen said.
Chen and colleagues examined information from 105,986 women who were followed from 1980 to 2008 as part of the Nurses Health Study. Women periodically answered questionnaires about their alcohol consumption and whether they had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
During the study period, 7,690 cases of invasive breast cancer were diagnosed.
The study found a rate of 333 cases of breast cancer per 100,000 women among those who drank three to six glasses of wine per week. There were 281 cases per 100,000 for women who drank no alcohol.
For those who consumed more than six glasses a week, the risk was higher. For women who consumed at least two drinks a day, the rate was 413 cases per 100,000 women — a 51 percent increase in breast cancer risk.
The study will be published tomorrow (Nov. 2) in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
It's not clear whether women could benefit from ceasing to drink alcohol by a certain age, wrote Dr. Steven Narod in an editorial accompanying the study. For instance, if alcohol exerted effects similar to hormone therapy (a treatment known to increase breast cancer risk in post-menopausal women), then women over 50 might benefit from cessation, said Narod, of the Women's College Research Institute in Toronto.
For some women, it seems the increase in risk of breast cancer may be substantial enough that cessation would be prudent. However, there are no data showing that giving up alcohol will reduce breast cancer risk, Narod said.
And it's possible that, for some, the benefit of drinking alcohol for the heart outweighs the risks of breast cancer, Narod said. Future research into alcohol's risks and benefits may provide women with more information to make a decision, Narod said.
Pass it on: Drinking three to six glasses of alcohol per week slightly increases breast cancer risk in women, a study suggests.
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I have been reading about the increased estrogen effect with alcohol intake for some time now. I just limit my drinking to one alcoholic drink when I go out to dinner, which is only once or twice a week. This makes a drink more festive and hopefully is healthier.
And just to think, the far safer alternative to drinking is still illegal. In fact cannabis has even been shown to have ANTI-tumor effects!
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/cannabis/healthprofessional/page4
That's right, that means it can help to CURE tumor growth, not that I'm trying to say just smoke weed instead of chemo, but, I'm sure it would be a major benefit for someone that had a tumor so small it had yet to even be recognized as such, maybe enough to send said tumor into remission and prevent the cancer from getting any worse!!!
So, remind me once again government, why is alcohol legal and cannabis not legal???? Really, I would like to hear an actual valid reason for continuing this delusional "war on drugs" that costs us billions of our hard earned tax dollars every year, and has no valid benefits.
Well they tried to illegalize alchohol, that was no good. So they won't do that again. As far as legalizing marihuana, I'd say try it. But alcohol is a social 'lubricant,' it tends to reduce inhibitions. Laws are a social function. Marijuana has a different effect, used more for the individual to play with his own thoughts, I would say. So it's a little bit less of a group thing, and maybe that has something to do with why it's hard to change the law.
I call BS on this study. There are so many more reasons related to hormone level changes in women than a few drinks of alcohol. This claim is assuming that it was only alcohol which is, scientifically speaking, BS! Very few scientist these days actually conduct a proper experiment. They only find what they are "looking" for. What a coincidence!
Salty dog: There are more reasons than that why the study is bogus. The fact, that the authors don't reveal, is that this isn't a scientific study at all. All that happened is a bunch of women were asked questions and the women answered them. Thus, if I drank 12 beers a day and answered that I drank 0 beers a day, then I would go down as one who has no breast cancer and did not drink. This is science? So, you are right that this is BS. But, the real reason is that there is no science to it.
Salty Dog,
I completely agree. There are so many contributions to why people get cancer these days - whether breast, colon, pancreatis, lung, liver, etc. To actually try to finger what increases or decreases the susceptiblity of a certain individual is crazy. They are indeed "looking" in this study. Cancer is simply abnormal cells in the body. We all carry them, even when we are healthy. The question is what is increasing the growth rate. Rather than look at air, food, water and the very important fundamentals that effect so many and should be ruled out first, you have these foolish reports and wasted scientific research. Women and men have been drinking long before the huge onset of cancer growth we see today.
Alcohol, smoking,promiscuity among women are all contributing to breast cancer, besides other factors. Only that women in general are in denial and are just dismissive about it.
Thanks for enlightening us women folk, Timb. I'd say you were correct but I guess I'm still floating along that river in Egypt and just don't have the energy to do anything but dismiss it for now.
I would say that the biggest contributor to cancer in ANYONE is all the crap that is pumped incessantly into the atmosphere and the water of our world by so many industrial and governmental ffactories or ? Telling women that three drinks or more a week will cause an increase in the likelihood of breast cancer is crap! Why not, as has been mentioned, simply legalize Maryjane, and we could all save a bunch by having a few plants in our backyards. So promisuity also causes it?? How does the vagina know which dick is which? Can it snitch to the hubby? So much bullcrap!! Also, I would love to know how much money was wasted on this so-called study.
Also, Chen says the "takehome" message won't be that women cannot drink at all? After such an audacious statement as this article, she thinks women will still feel okay about drinking? Ship her back to China, please!
Give it a rest, timb...if women didn't drink, we wouldn't ever get any...lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually the real reason why they won't change the marijuana laws is because certain groups lobby against it, such as: drug cartels, who want to keep it illegal to keep their profits sky high; alcohol companies, because they realize that if people had a much safer alternative when it comes to legal recreational usage, their sales would go down; pharmaceutical companies, because for one, legal cannabis would mean ALOT less people spending money on their pills, and for two, (this is the scary part) because of it's anti-tumor properties, as the example I gave above, people who might have small undiagnosed tumors, might go into remission, and never have to get other forms of treatment, IE their expensive drugs!
It's a joke...worked hard, never cheated...got 2 ex-wives ..(both of them did cheat)... come here for "booty calls" when they're upset with their boyfriends 'n (wanna talk).....
My daughters hate them...i do everything to discourage that!..go figure...
$#@*! And think of the poor people who drink red wine because it has antioxidants that prevent cancer. You can't win for losing.
This study is not taking into consideration that wine is 13.5% alc.vol. while MGD-64 (light beer) is 2.1%, and some vodka is 80%. All women are not wine drinkers and the logic of this study falls short.
Well ladies, take your pick: death by heart disease or death by breast cancer. But before you get too worried, remember that for every scientific study showing one thing, before long there will be another scientific study countering the previous one. Believe it or not, men get breast cancer and heart disease, too. As for me, I enjoy a glass or two of wine, and I don't enjoy a hangover and being overweight, so I limit my drinking and exercise. At least that way, when I die I will have enjoyed my life.
Why do correlational studies carry any weight at all? So if you drink 3 times a week, you may have a 2% higher chance of breast cancer? Seriously? Maybe there were other variables not isolated in this study that contributed to the increased percentage... Maybe some ladies pick their nose. Maybe some ladies ate lamb instead of chicken. Maybe the shock of the moon being made of cheese momentarily shocked some of the woman creating free radicals? As ridiculous as my examples are, there are an unimaginable number of variables that a "study" like this can not isolate.
Why do you think that getting past the word filter, and making your font extraneously large, is gonna make people listen to you anymore?
Correlational studies are the only kind you can do on humans. Cause and effect studies are unethical.
You know what I think? I think women who enjoy drinking wine during the week are of an upper-social class, sorta like "real housewives"... and they are all on the Pill. Same demographic. and the Pill is what gives them cancer. Or their abortions.... Just sayin'!!
So if I drink wine during the week this means I'm upper class, on the Pill and have had an abortion? Unfortunatly some of these factors, along with my wallet, tell me otherwise.
It may slightly increase the cancer rate.
But it also helps bras come off faster.
Obviously inspired by another do-gooder. Stop drinking! Stop smoking! Stop this! Stop that! Stop Stop Stop Stop Stop !!!! Here, let me help you - I'll pass a law to stop you from hurting yourself. I will become Californanny!!! Yahooo........
Overreact much? It's just a study. Information is always a good thing. Weigh the risks of drinking to your own situation and either stop or don't. Your choice.
Mark Twain had the answer years ago. "Lies, damned lies, and statistics." Which should be updated to, " The stupidty of liers, damned liers, and really stupid statisticians."
Every other year something that makes life a little more interesting is found to cause some illness. Then the next year it is found to be the answer to all health problems. Really....wine. What's next. Enjoy today you may not have tomorrow to be "Healthy".
Ok these nuts tell us a couple of drinks a week is good for us then the next week they say it ups the chance for breast cancer. These doctors need to learn to net work.!!
i have been a moderate to sometimes a heavy drinker & i had breast cancer & another friend did not smoke cigs or cannabis like me & she has had breast cancer 2 times plus in 22 lymph nodes so yes i believe drinking, smoking can increase risk or cannot (like in my friend's case) go figure set limits no excess in alcohol, fats, sweets etc but enjoy life
Another day, another study, another conclusion.
The fact is we all will die someday. I've known people who lived healthy lives that died young and I've known people who drank, smoked and indulged themselves and lived to be in their 80s.
Even "all things in moderation" isn't necessarily a guarantee of long life and good health. The obituary column nearly weekly in my area is filled with people in their 60s 70s and 80s, but it also includes people in their 40s 30s and 20s.
So live sensibly, but enjoy life because you never know when it might end.
I'm not a doctor and I don't know if I have the answers to preventing breast cancer. It just seems to me that breast cancer is far more prevelant now than it was when I was growing up. It seems like everything you do now days causes some sort of cancer or damage to your body. I'm a dude so my chances of getting breast cancer is pretty low I think but women today are getting it pretty easy. I'm married and have three girls and I'm concerned about all of them getting breast cancer. Alcohol is bad for you except in moderation. A glass of wine with a meal is not that bad. Overall though, alcohol has caused a lot of deaths in our society and it's legal. I'm with the guy that suggested smoking a joint ever now and then instead of getting a drink. It's a lot safer and cheaper and it's doesn't put your brain to sleep. It just sends you down to the nearest 7-11 or to Wendy's after midnight for the munchies. I feel sorry for women having to endure this crap. We need to protect the titties and find out what we can do to reverse this trend. You never know. It could happen to you or your wife or lover or to your children. Can't laugh to that. It doesn't make any difference who you are.
It's not more prevelant it's just the stigma is no longer there. You also didn't hear much about testicular or prostate cancer either. Or pregnancy for that matter. Most health reports in the mainstream media just didn't talk about this stuff.
William, I agree.....I often think about all the "moms" in the suburban neighborhood I grew up in, none of them ever had breast cancer...and I would have known because my mom was very close with all of them, there were 7 women who all were great friends and raised the kids in the neighborhood. I am going to go out on a limb here and get a lot of backlash for what I'm about to say. Sometimes I wonder if the benign bumps and lumps in a woman's breast are misdiagnosed as cancer..and after all the radiation from mammograms and all the chemo.....well maybe that's what kills her. I just find it hard to believe that the amount of women diagnosed........it almost seems like every other woman you talk to really has breast cancer. I've also read that we all have cancer cells that come and go during the month....the body takes care of this...maybe we are interfering with the bodie's ability to stop the cancer itself...before it gets to the out of control stage. OK...I said it...now I'm sure I'll be raked over the coals. Also, don't get me wrong...I know cancer is real...my husband has been battling non-hodgkin lymphoma for three years, it was found after a blood test due to severe anemia and platelet loss, and he had a bone marrow biopsy that confirmed it.
I think the media has a knack for dramatizing everything to the point where we're all scared to death we'll get cancer, be murdered, have our children kidnapped, etc. Of course those things do happen, which is unfortunate, but is it occurring as frequently as they make it seem? I'm not so sure. I've read many health reports stating that only 2% of breast lumps turn out to be cancerous.
I'm not trying to dismiss the seriousness of breast cancer (may God bless and heal those who have it), but I think the media is fear mongering. They warn against consuming three glasses of wine per week, but fail to mention the crap that's pumped into our food supply in the form of hormones, pesticides, preservatives, and antibiotics. Perhaps that's contributing to breast cancer cases. They tell us what they want and leave out the rest.
Missy, I'm not going to rake you over the coals but I think you're wrong here. Most women I know don't have breast cancer either past or present. You read about this stuff much more now. I mean wasn't last month a sea of pink? Because of this we all hear and read many more stories.
I pointed out earlier how this stuff just wasn't reported. As I recall back in the 60s and early 70s cancer itself was rarely discussed let alone anything having to do with breast cancer or prostate cancer. It wasn't deemed fit for general consumption. This doesn't mean it didn't occur, just like the lack of reporting on child abuse and domestic violence didn't mean stuff like that didn't occur it simply wasn't talked about in polite company and that included news stories.
TOO many STATS and where are they COMING from?
everything has a CONSEQUENCE, but living is IMPORTANT !
new studies come out on a DAILY basis, What is one to BELIEVE?
I say, enjoy whatever time you have left on this MERRY-GO-ROUND, be a good person, care for others, AND to HELL with these OVER-BLOWN reports !
I can't even imagine how you could realistically set up a study that could isolate just alcohol consumption and ignore all other variables. Did the study also control the food intake from all those involved in the study? What about invironmental variations of the study group? How did they come to the conclusions that were made?
I'd like to see their data...I wonder when the media will realize that association (higher drinking being correlated with higher rates of breast cancer, in this case) does not imply causation. The two occuring together does not mean that one is causing the other.
Bad studies give bad knowledge. The media only makes things worse.
This whole theory is just pure BS to the Nth degree!!!!
Eat, Drink, & be Merry...b/c, no one wants to live forever!!!!
Dirty air, so many other chemicals, genetics, solar/cosmic rays, enviromental settings, and bad air, clean & dirty living also causes breast and other cancers.
No one WILL live forever; that's a fact. So eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. I like a line from Billy Joel's song Only the Good Die Young: They say there's a Heaven for those who will wait
Some say it's better but I say it ain't
I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with a saint
The sinners are much more fun...
I would think there may be a higher probability that those who drink more may also smoke. Maybe the higher cancer rates are due to the smoking or some other factor? It may be unethical to perform a cause and effect study, but there is nothing unethical about asking people to report their behaviors. How much do you drink? How much do you smoke? I find this study unconvincing.
What a crock. The problem here is that there are too many so-called scientists that are more interested in seeing their name in print than doing any actual, real, valid scientiic work.
How many times do we hear that coffee is bad for you on Monday, only to hear on Thursday that coffee is good for you.
Don't believe everything you read. Use good judgement in ALL things.
These stupid studies really MUST be discontinued. It's a waste of exorbitant sums of money and for what? They tell you theres a chance there might be a risk of unknown side effects when you drink a gallon of wine every day. There's a much greater risk that you will be run down by an ignorant operator who is texting while driving. And has probably misspelled a dozen words already. They tell you there's a risk if you do and a risk if you don't. Isn't that catch-22: you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Murphy's law: if something can go wrong it probably will. But a true fact is that a Dementedratic government will spend all the money on which it can get its hands. So the best choice is not to let them get their hands on any.
I wonder how many women they did the study on are taking hormone therapy also which is a known problem for women. I stopped seeing my female gyno when she kept insisting that I take what is basically horse urine for hormone supplements. I'm in my 60s and never went through hot flashes or any other menopausal type problems, but she was pushing it anyway. So many of these studies are just not credible. Maybe this article was directed to that mother in Florida whose baby is missing that can't remember whether she had five or ten glasses of wine. I'm surprised someone didn't ask her if she was afraid of getting breast cancer during one of her interviews. I'm being facetious, but with just the facts in the article up above, my noncredibility meter is going off.
As I discuss in my book, there has actually been reliable clinical data, for several years, showing that as little as one alcoholic drink per day (e.g., a glass of beer, a glass of wine, or a single mixed drink) is associated with a small but significant increase in breast cancer risk. Moreover, even modest but regular alcohol intake has also been shown to increase the risk of multiple other types of cancer, including cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus, stomach, colon, rectum, pancreas, and liver.
Robert A. Wascher, MD, FACS
Author, "A Cancer Prevention Guide for the Human Race"
This is a lie, a falsehood, a biased viewpoint and unilateral. Alcohol is a disinfectant by nature and therefore can not be harmful if used. The hygienic conditions in which possibly ingested causes of cancer, as well as meals with accompanying glass of alcohol. So do not come to fool people.
Breast cancer is a lymphatic problem and therefore of body weakness, lack of iron and folic acid, no adequate food for women and lack of adequate physical care, by excessive dieting and lack of vitamin supplements.
Revise their theories and learn to properly guide you people.
And just how much did this "study" cost the taxpayers of America!!!
This sounds like someone is trying to adjust the stock market and pricing of the Wine industry. One month they are saying, "Wine is good for your heart", your blood, or whatever and the next month it's, "it causes breast cancer." I mean, come on...who are we supposed to believe...really?
Dear Rachel, please use spell check before you press the "publish" button. That's why you get paid the big bucks!