By Esther Okafor
Drinking alcohol causes at least seven kinds of cancer, a new study warns.
A new research conducted by Professor Jennie Connor, of the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at Otago Medical School in New Zealand, said alcohol is estimated to have caused half a million deaths since 2012 amounting to more than one in 20 of all cancer deaths.
Connor added that there is no safe level of drinking with respect to cancer. She said, the risks are reduced for some forms when people stop drinking. “The evidence shows the relation between alcohol and cancer is ‘dose dependent’ in other words the more you drink, the greater the risk.”
The health benefits of drinking red wine which is supposedly good for the heart was seen as irrelevant in comparison to the increased risk of cancer.
Medical Officers also warned that women who regularly drink alcohol have a 40 per cent increased risk of developing breast cancer and dying from it. For every 1,000 women who don’t drink, 109 will develop breast cancer.
Science programme manager for the World Cancer Research Fund, WCRF, Susannah Brown said many people wrongly believe alcohol consumption is only linked to liver cancer.
Brown said, ‘For cancer prevention, we have long recommended people should not drink alcohol at all, but we understand this can be easier said than done.’
Discussion about this post