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posted by martyb on Friday November 10 2017, @12:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the Yikes!-Cancer?-I-need-a-drink! dept.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has released a statement (open, DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2017.76.1155) (DX) discussing the links between alcohol consumption and cancer:

The statement provides evidence of a connection between light drinking and an increased risk of esophageal and breast cancer. Heavy drinkers face a much longer list of risks, including mouth cancer, throat cancer, cancer of the voice box, liver cancer, and colorectal cancer. That's a whole lot of cancers.

"The message is not, 'Don't drink.' It's, 'If you want to reduce your cancer risk, drink less," said Dr. Noelle LoConte, lead author of the statement. "And if you don't drink, don't start." She says this "subtle" take on the issue is somewhat less cautionary than the warnings about smoking. But the message rings the same.

The doctors behind the statement aimed to draw attention to what they view as a public health problem and advocate for a push towards better education and research.

Also at Medscape and ASCO (shorter press release).

Previously: Study Shows 3 Drinks a Day May Cause Liver Cancer

Related: Even Moderate Drinking Linked to a Decline in Brain Health
Researchers Make Alcohol Out of Thin Air
No Magic Pill to Cure Alcohol Dependence Yet
Early Age of Drinking Leads to Neurocognitive and Neuropsychological Damage


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @03:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @03:33PM (#595153)

    Simply put, those studies are full of shit.

    People who drink in moderation are far more likely to be healthy than people who either binge or abstain completely for the simple reason that people who abstain are frequently recovered alcoholics and those that binge are likely to wind up with health problems associated with drug abuse.

    This whole business about alcohol being health needs to stop. Alcohol is a poison that people largely tolerate in reasonable quantities. It is not now, nor has it ever been healthy. The main reason why so many people drink is because before we had the ability to treat and purify water, the alcohol in beers would kill most of the bacteria that were causing people to get sick. And even in that scenario, it's not that the alcohol was healthy, it was that it was less unhealthy than the alternative.