A US study put another nail in the coffin of the after-dinner tipple. The research, from the
National Cancer Institute, provided more evidence for a link doctors have long suspected: that drinking increases the risk of breast cancer.
Nearly 200,000 postmenopausal women were followed for approximately seven years, and the findings weren't surprising. Women who had 1-2 small drinks a day were 32 per cent more likely to develop a hormone-sensitive tumour.
The alcohol can interfere with the metabolism of estrogen, one of two hormone receptors found in 70 per cent of diagnosed breast cancers. The other hormone is progesterone.
And women who drank three or more glasses a day? Their risk rose to 51 per cent. Women who only had one drink a day still saw an increase of seven per cent.
It doesn't matter what you drink - bad news for those who were using a glass of red wine to ward off heart disease.
"Regardless of the type of alcohol, the risk was evident," confirmed Jasmine Lew, the lead researcher.
She was clear to point out that the study did not show cause and effect, but did provide more evidence for a burgeoning theory.
In the United States, breast cancer is the second-most deadly cancer for women after lung cancer.
Doctors recommend mammograms for women between 50-69 years of age, but check with your doctor if there's a history of the disease in your family.
There are many factors that can increase the risk of breast cancer, and some of them, unfortunately, you can't do anything about:
- Advancing age
- A family history of breast cancer, especially if your mother, sister or daughter is afflicted
- Early menstruation, especially if you started your period before the age of 12
- Race: African-American women are more likely than Caucasions to get breast cancer before menopause. While white women are more likely to develop breast cancer than black, Hispanic or Asian women; black women are more likely to die from the disease.
But there are some things you can change. Here are a few tips to reduce your risk of contracting the disease:
- Lose weight
- Drink less
- Eat more fibre
- Stop smoking. While the links to breast cancer are conflicting, there are many other benefits to quitting smoking
- Cut out fat from your diet - researchers advocate limiting calories from fat to 20 percent to 30 per cent of your daily intake
- Limit exposure to radiation
Information courtesy the
Mayo Clinic
and
WebMD.
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