Are moderate amounts of alcohol good for your health? Multiple studies have been published on the subject and have had different conclusions. Positive studies on alcohol have shown benefits to moderate drinking, such as the strengthening of bones, protection against heart disease, and reduced risk of cognitive impairment.
All these benefits may sound promising, but don’t get thirsty yet. A study published in the early November issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that low amounts of alcohol consumption are associated with an increase in breast cancer risk. The researchers found that consuming even three to six drinks per week (five to ten grams per day) significantly increased breast cancer risk by 15 per cent.
Aiming to find the link between breast cancer and adult alcohol consumption, the study examined the changes in drinking patterns during adult life. The authors claim that their study is the first on the association of both frequent drinking and binge drinking with breast cancer risk. The study followed 105,986 women from the Nurses’ Health Study from 1980 until 2008.
Dr. Chen, one of the authors of the study, stresses that the most consistent and informative way to look at alcohol consumption is to look at the average cumulative intake over the long term, rather than intake at one particular time. Moreover, drinking earlier (ages 18-40) and later (above age 40) in adult life were independently linked with breast cancer risk. The study did not find any difference between risks from drinking different types of alcoholic beverage.
So what does all this mean for you? Dr. Chen says that doctors need to look at the overall risk and benefit of an intervention for individual cases because with alcohol, there are increased negative risks but there are also some benefits, such as cardiovascular disease prevention. She explains that the study did not find an increase in risk with less than three drinks per week, so she suggests that this dosage may be safe for avoiding breast cancer risk.
Alcohol may be good in moderation in that it can lower risk for certain diseases, but it seems that this rule does not apply to breast cancer risk. The Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) advises that the harmful effects of alcohol outweigh the good.
