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
Related Stories
Source The Guardian
The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has pinpointed the level of drinking implicated in liver cancer after undertaking what it says was the biggest review so far of the evidence on the relationship between diet, weight, physical activity and the disease.
Its assessment of 34 previous studies covering 8.2 million people, more than 24,500 of whom had liver cancer, revealed “strong evidence” linking intake of three drinks a day to the disease.
“Around three or more drinks per day can be enough to cause liver cancer,” said Amanda Mclean, director of the charity’s UK branch. “Until now we were uncertain about the amount of alcohol likely to lead to liver cancer. But the research reviewed in this report is strong enough, for the first time, to be more specific about this.”
The WCRF’s findings prompted the Alcohol Health Alliance, a coalition of health organisations, to claim that alcohol is so toxic that cans and bottles should carry health warnings.
“Alcohol, like tobacco and asbestos, is a class 1 carcinogen and it is totally unacceptable that the public is not provided with such basic information”, said Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, the alliance’s chair.
On the flip side...
The WCRF’s analysis also found strong evidence that coffee could help protect against liver cancer, though it did not specify the amounts someone needs to drink.
Alcohol consumption, even at moderate levels, is associated with increased risk of adverse brain outcomes and steeper decline in cognitive (mental) skills, finds a study published by The BMJ today.
These results support the recent reduction in alcohol guidance in the UK and raise questions about the current limits recommended in the US, say the authors.
[...] Several factors that could have influenced the results (known as confounding) were taken into account, such as age, sex, education, social class, physical and social activity, smoking, stroke risk and medical history.
After adjusting for these confounders, the researchers found that higher alcohol consumption over the 30 year study period was associated with increased risk of hippocampal atrophy -- a form of brain damage that affects memory and spatial navigation.
-- submitted from IRC
Anya Topiwala, Charlotte L Allan, et al. Moderate alcohol consumption as risk factor for adverse brain outcomes and cognitive decline: longitudinal cohort study. BMJ, 2017; j2353 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.j2353
It may sound too good to be true, but TU Delft PhD student Ming Ma has found a way to produce alcohol out of thin air. Or to be more precise, he has found how to effectively and precisely control the process of electroreduction of CO2 to produce a wide range of useful products, including alcohol. Being able to use CO2 as such a resource may be pivotal in tackling climate change. His PhD defence will take place on September 14th.
[...] For mitigating atmospheric CO2 concentration, carbon capture and utilization (CCU) could be a feasible alternative strategy to carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). The electrochemical reduction of CO2 to fuels and value-added chemicals has attracted considerable attention as a promising solution. In this process, the captured CO2 is used as a resource and converted into carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), ethylene (C2H4), and even liquid products such as formic acid (HCOOH), methanol (CH3OH) and ethanol (C2H5OH).
The high energy density hydrocarbons can be directly and conveniently utilized as fuels within the current energy infrastructure. In addition, the production of CO is very interesting since it can be used as feedstock in the Fischer–Tropsch process, a well-developed technology that has been widely used in industry to convert syngas (CO and hydrogen (H2)) into valuable chemicals such as methanol and synthetic fuels (such as diesel fuel). The figure attached describes these three processes and the way electroreduction of CO2 could potentially close the carbon cycle.
Beer, from air. Others use barley as an intermediary.
Publication: Aula TU Delft, PhD defence Ming Ma, Selective Electrocatalytic CO2 Conversion on Metal Surfaces.
A new study published by the scientific journal Addiction has found no reliable evidence for using nalmefene, naltrexone, acamprosate, baclofen or topiramate to control drinking in patients with alcohol dependence or alcohol use disorder. At best, some treatments showed low to medium efficacy in reducing drinking, but those findings were from studies with a high risk of bias. None demonstrated any benefit on health outcomes.
The study pooled the results from 32 double-blind randomised controlled trials representing 6,036 patients, published between 1994 and 2015. The studies compared the effects of oral nalmefene (n=9), naltrexone (n=14), acamprosate (n=1), baclofen (n=4) and topimarate (n=4) against placebo.
Many of the studies provided unreliable results due to risk of bias (potential exaggeration of the effects of the drug). Twenty-six studies (81%) showed an unclear or high risk of incomplete outcome data due to the large number of withdrawals. Seventeen studies (53%) showed an unclear or a high risk of selective outcome reporting, as they did not include a protocol registration number, which would allow another researcher to check whether all outcomes were reported.
Clément Palpacuer, et. al. Pharmacologically controlled drinking in the treatment of alcohol dependence or alcohol use disorders: a systematic review with direct and network meta-analyses on nalmefene, naltrexone, acamprosate, baclofen and topiramate. Addiction, 2017; DOI: 10.1111/add.13974
Back to the drawing board.
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Although drinking by U.S. adolescents has decreased during the last decade, more than 20 percent of U.S. high-school students continue to drink alcohol before the age of 14 years. This can have adverse effects on their neurodevelopment. For example, youth who initiate drinking before 14 years of age are four times more likely to develop psychosocial, psychiatric, and substance-use difficulties than those who begin drinking after turning 20 years of age. Little is known about how the age of alcohol-use onset influences brain development. This is the first study to assess the association between age of adolescent drinking onset and neurocognitive performance, taking into account pre-existing cognitive function.
AND see also: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acer.13503
Excessive drinking killed over 3 million people in 2016
Drinking too much alcohol killed more than 3 million people in 2016, mostly men, the World Health Organization said.
The U.N. health agency also warned that current policy responses are not sufficient to reverse trends predicting an increase in consumption over the next 10 years.
In a new report Friday, the agency said that about 237 million men and 46 million women faced alcohol problems, with the highest prevalence in Europe and the Americas. Europe has the highest global per capita alcohol consumption, even though it has already dropped by 10 percent since 2010.
Around a third of alcohol-related deaths were a result of injuries, including car crashes and self-harm, while about one in five were due to either digestive disorders or cardiovascular diseases. Cancers, infectious diseases, mental disorders and other health conditions were also to blame.
From the Chapter 4 summary:
In 2016, the harmful use of alcohol resulted in some 3 million deaths (5.3% of all deaths) worldwide and 132.6 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) – i.e. 5.1% of all DALYs in that year. Mortality resulting from alcohol consumption is higher than that caused by diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and diabetes. Among men in 2016, an estimated 2.3 million deaths and 106.5 million DALYs were attributable to the consumption of alcohol. Women experienced 0.7 million deaths and 26.1 million DALYs attributable to alcohol consumption.
Related: The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking is Healthy
Study Shows 3 Drinks a Day May Cause Liver Cancer
Even Moderate Drinking Linked to a Decline in Brain Health
American Society of Clinical Oncology: Alcohol Use Increases Risk of Cancer
Study: No "Safe" Level of Alcohol Consumption
No alcohol safe to drink, global study confirms
A large new global study published in the Lancet has confirmed previous research which has shown that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. The researchers admit moderate drinking may protect against heart disease but found that the risk of cancer and other diseases outweighs these protections. A study author said its findings were the most significant to date because of the range of factors considered.
The Global Burden of Disease [open, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31310-2] [DX] study looked at levels of alcohol use and its health effects in 195 countries, including the UK, between 1990 and 2016.
Analysing data from 15 to 95-year-olds, the researchers compared people who did not drink at all with those who had one alcoholic drink a day. They found that out of 100,000 non-drinkers, 914 would develop an alcohol-related health problem such as cancer or suffer an injury. But an extra four people would be affected if they drank one alcoholic drink a day. For people who had two alcoholic drinks a day, 63 more developed a condition within a year and for those who consumed five drinks every day, there was an increase of 338 people, who developed a health problem.
One of the study authors, Prof Sonia Saxena, a researcher at Imperial College London and a practising GP, said: "One drink a day does represent a small increased risk, but adjust that to the UK population as a whole and it represents a far bigger number, and most people are not drinking just one drink a day."
Related: The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking is Healthy
Study Shows 3 Drinks a Day May Cause Liver Cancer
Even Moderate Drinking Linked to a Decline in Brain Health
American Society of Clinical Oncology: Alcohol Use Increases Risk of Cancer
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday November 10 2017, @12:45AM
I am so dead :(
It's just a fact of life that people with brains the size of grapes have mouths the size of watermelons. -- Aunty Acid
(Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Friday November 10 2017, @12:48AM (4 children)
That's what my brother would tell me. He was a great guy, a handsome person. He was the life of the party. He was a fantastic guy, but he got stuck on alcohol.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday November 10 2017, @01:17AM (3 children)
And then there's me. I like a drink too, but in moderation and not daily.
I don't give flying fuck what that study "provides evidence of" I like to have a couple of nice beers while I'm watching sport on TV a couple of times a week.
My life would not be as much fun if I stopped, so I'm not going to stop.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday November 10 2017, @01:24AM
Life will be fun if you do what I did, embrace sobriety and Jesus*.
* Also, racism
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @03:29PM (1 child)
Spoken like a closeted alcoholic or somebody with mental problems.
I haven't had a drink in over 15 years and unless you've got a really fucked up social life, it is indeed possible to go years without drinking and still have plenty of fun. Alcohol is a crutch and by no means necessary to have a good time.
The things alcohol does are mostly things that can be classified as unnecessary and undesirable, it's just that there's all these people claiming that being drunk is fun, when really they mean that their lives suck and they need to forget.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @04:29PM
welcome to the u.s.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @01:05AM (3 children)
I shuda been dead, like couple decades ago.
Making me light up again. American Spirit is the shit.
Maybe it's the sushi and sashimi that keep me alive. Them Japs live a long ass time.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday November 10 2017, @02:10AM (2 children)
.. by mercury poisoning. Wikipedia cited two specific people.
To eat them when dining out should be OK, but the two dead people ate them every day for twenty years.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @03:17AM (1 child)
Oh well, I ain't dead yet. More raw fish for me.
Actually, raw beef, too, with some sesame oil.
But I ain't crazy. Some fools eat raw chicken - what dumb asses.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday November 10 2017, @05:07AM
I'm not concerned about Trichinosis because I figure the USDA inspectors do a good job.
But I'm paranoid about raw chicken and eggs,because I once had Salmonella.
You don't want to get Salmonella.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday November 10 2017, @01:11AM (5 children)
This flies in the face of hundreds of studies suggesting light to moderate alcohol consumption is actually health and extends life.
There seems to be a requirement to end your study, regardless of your results, with an admonishment to never take a drink.
Mostly because there exist people who may drink to excess.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @01:15AM
Define "excess".
Wait, gotta go stock up again.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Friday November 10 2017, @08:25AM (2 children)
This flies in the face of hundreds of studies suggesting light to moderate alcohol consumption is actually health and extends life.
It would seem to, yes.
But...
If you understand the context here, you'll find out it is entirely compatible with that (unfortunately, probably incorrect - I'll come back to this) research.
The first thing to notice is that this is a statement from the The American Society of Clinical Oncology - they are talking specifically about cancer risk.
The research you refer to is epidemiological research which looks at all-cause mortality - not just cancer.
In fact it is well known that alcohol is protective against cardiovascular events (like 'heart attack' and 'stroke'). So while alcohol increases your upper-digestive tract cancer risk (e.g. oesophageal cancer)((This is also already well known)), it protects against other causes of death. The epidemiological research shows that these effects balance out (pretty much), and most such research seems to indicate a 'J-curve' effect where drinking small-to-moderate amounts is overall protective - that is all-cause mortality figures for teetotallers is worse than for small-to-moderate drinkers.
However...
Epidemiological research in this area is hard to get right. You need to take into account all sorts of things that can skew your data - for example, some people are teetotal because they can't drink because they are too ill: and sometimes they are ill because of an alcohol induced disease like cirrhosis of the liver. It turns out that if you do the necessary corrections for this kind of thing, the 'J-curve' effect vanishes, and you get a normal dose-repose relationship: the more alcohol you regularly drink, the higher the all-cause mortality rate.
So the lesson from this is: don't cherry-pick your data - concentrating on cancer risk while ignoring cardiovascular effects is not helpful: but also, make sure you have corrected for sources of skew in your data (this is hard).
The paper showing the disappearance of the 'J-curve' is "Do “Moderate” Drinkers Have Reduced Mortality Risk? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Alcohol Consumption and All-Cause Mortality - Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 77(2), 185–198 (2016). [jsad.com]. It is good research. It will take a while to filter through into general consciousness.
There's a commentary on the paper here: Moderate drinkers may not have reduced risk of all-cause mortality: a lifecourse perspective [bmj.com]
And here is press release, which is quite readable, about the study: Public Release: 22-Mar-2016 Is moderate drinking really good for you? Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs [eurekalert.org]
Full disclosure: I drink low-to-moderate amounts of alcohol, even knowing it is likely decreasing my life expectancy. I like drinking, and it is a bit irritating that I can no longer claim that drinking small amounts is good for me. Them's the breaks. Sláinte!
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday November 10 2017, @09:21AM (1 child)
Sometimes?
So the 6 people who gave up drinking because cirrhosis has them circling the drain, somehow hid a life of alcoholism, and got classified as a tee totaler, and totally overwhelmed the statistics of entire religions that never partake of alcohol from cradle to grave?
Meta analysis!!!
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @03:40PM
People in religions that never partake of alcohol also do other things not related to alcohol that tend to cause good health. Pinning it on alcohol is something that alcoholics love because it helps rationalize what they're doing.
The 7th day adventists get used in studies like that all the time, but it's not just the lack of alcohol, they do numerous other things that are good for their bodies and get health that matches the work they put into it. Likewise, Mormons are hardly just cutting the alcohol out, they cut caffeine out and have a
Here's a summary link of some religious dietary restrictions. Most of them bar alcohol and have other components that are firmly established to improve health. There's a couple that don't, but they aren't cited as having extraordinary health either.
https://www.deseretnews.com/top/714/5/Mormonism-Dietary-guidelines-of-some-of-the-worlds-major-religions.html [deseretnews.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @03:33PM
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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @01:13AM (1 child)
Don't do heroin
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday November 10 2017, @02:13AM
Mick Jagger was afforded the same things, [dailymail.co.uk] but those which were previously found easily are now buried until said rockstars are dead. CIA tactics, really, like John McCain's or the Bushes' sordid pasts: Don't bring it up until they are already dead, then apply those rules upon everybody else.
(Score: 2, Informative) by rylyeh on Friday November 10 2017, @01:40AM
My great hope is that my cancers will wait till the appropriate treatments are available.
👿
"a vast crenulate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday November 10 2017, @01:59AM (4 children)
If you want to avoid death by cancer, you should drink more. Like, a lot more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @03:46AM (3 children)
Wanna avoid cancer? Die early. If you somehow manage to live long enough, cancer will get you.
Remember, life causes cancer.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday November 10 2017, @04:09AM (2 children)
... you haven't drunk enough.
Remember, with drinking time is not lost, just regrettable wasted (this includes sleeping while wasted)
There's no better time for drinking like now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Redundant) by c0lo on Friday November 10 2017, @04:10AM
PS (GRI-hips!-IN)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @06:10AM
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday November 10 2017, @02:09AM (4 children)
... because we don't hang out in bars.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @02:11AM (3 children)
The top shelf pussy is in middle schools, not bars.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @02:31AM (1 child)
Forbidden. Unless, that is, if you are one of the Dick Niggers (grin)
(Score: 3, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday November 10 2017, @02:44PM
Yeah, but you don't wanna be messin wit' dose Dick Niggers -- they've been to prison many times and have been hardened into killing machines. The knockout game is the least of your worries. Remember the scientist from Terminator 2 who built the T-800? He was a Dick Nigger.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @10:02AM
that's simply not true. if you want to just stick it into something tight, get some fucking toys. if you want to get laid (=enjoy conversation and sex with another human being) a grown-up is always a better choice. for both activities.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Friday November 10 2017, @04:02AM (4 children)
Let's see... Don't drink or you will die of cancer...
About a year or two ago, all the news was that Bacon caused cancer as well...
So don't drink or eat bacon or you will die of cancer.
You know what, I am going to eat bacon and drink. I may die of cancer earlier, but damn it... WHAT IS THE POINT OF LIVING IF YOU CAN'T ENJOY IT???
Not to mention eating red meat, smoking (I don't smoke, but some others may enjoy it) Staying out in the sun... f-ing nature... causes cancer. Get injured and have an X-ray and trying to help your health causes cancer. Worrying about cancer is probably another cause of cancer... everything else causes it.
Maybe they should instead start telling people what doesn't cause cancer. The list will be shorter.
Go... live your life, enjoy it, for tomorrow you may get killed by a car or countless other non-cancerous ways.
If you do wind up with cancer... do what you can, but still go and enjoy life, as I said, whats the point otherwise?
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @04:28AM
Yea, Ive been slowly realizing why so little (its improved a tiny bit recently, but still) is being done about the rampant phacking, etc these people are doing. Its pointless to reason with them, and they are just destroying their own credibility anyway. May as well just do your best to avoid them and whatever the current fad is. I wish there were fewer stories like this on soylent though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @04:30AM
Also cell division (mitogenesis) causes cancer, that is why "living" causes cancer, more cells are used up the more you live. Im not exactly clear on why this is an offensive idea, but it is for some reason.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @09:57AM
I think it's safe to say that regular sex does not cause cancer (obviously you need to keep clean, don't overdo it, and in general stop if anything is hurting).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @03:43PM
This kind of ignorance is ridiculous.
Believe it or not, there are people out there that actually have the kind of diet that you're knocking that seem to have no particular problem enjoying life. Perhaps you ought to try it before you knock it. Fats, salt and sugar are easy flavors to appreciate. But, they're hardly the only ones out there. Having a refined sense of taste can take a bit of exploration, but if you're just enjoying unhealthy things, there are consequences.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @02:39PM (3 children)
You can never smoke, exercise regularly, not drink, avoid gluten, and eat nasty-ass kale our whole life. Guess what?
You're still going to die.
Enjoy life while you're alive. There are no bonus points for dying healthy.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @03:46PM (2 children)
You die, but rather than having decades of misery from diabetes, stroke and dementia, you're likely to get to enjoy your later years for longer rather than living in a state of more or less agony through most of it.
People like you are so incredibly short-sighted and it's why the nursing homes are so common. It's unnatural for somebody to approach the end of their life so slowly and with so much suffering. Obviously, you can't completely avoid that sort of fate, but if you're actually taking care of yourself, you can prolong the period of health well past middle age.
What's more, the healthy habits that people push also increase the quality of life before that point as it allows people to make the most of what they want. If you've got a crap diet it comes out somewhere.
(Score: 3, Touché) by tangomargarine on Friday November 10 2017, @04:24PM
I would argue that avoiding everything fun in life in order to make the end of it a bit better is the unnatural part. Natural death back in the middle ages was in your 50s from The Plague or unsanitized surgical tools or childbirth or war or etc. etc. etc.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2017, @08:15PM
Enjoy your long, boring life.
Hey, watch out for that bus!
Opps, too late. Thanks for living.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tangomargarine on Friday November 10 2017, @04:21PM
Other entries on the list of things that cause cancer:
- Food without calories (artificial crap)
- Food with calories
- Going outside
- Not going outside
- Breathing
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"