Is it time to retire all of those old “a drink a day is good for you” studies yet? Especially since they were generally funded by associations of brewers and wineries?

According to this CBC article:

Downing as little as one alcoholic drink a day seems to increase a woman’s risk for developing cancer, according to a British study that looked at a million middle-aged women.

The study in Tuesday’s issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggested the cancer risks of alcohol may outweigh any potential benefits it has on the heart.

“These findings suggest that even low levels of drinking increase a woman’s risk of developing cancer of the breast, liver and rectum — and in smokers, cancers of the mouth and throat,” Naomi Allen of the University of Oxford, who led the study, said in a statement.

Low to moderate alcohol consumption may account for nearly 13 per cent of the cancers studied, the researchers said.

This dovetails with the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation of Cancer) study earlier, which came to similar conclusions. So stop telling people that a drink a day is good for them: it causes cancer, and let’s be honest here: there are far better ways to improve your heart health than to drink alcohol.

If heart health is your concern, here’s an idea: try a better diet and regular exercise. Regular alcoholic drinking is an absolutely ridiculous way of trying to improve your heart, especially since we have scientific confirmation of its considerable down side.

Posted in Ramblings |

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