The World Health Organization has published a new research that links moderate consumption of alcohol with a significantly higher risk of developing certain cancers, including colon and breast cancer. The study comes from the WHO International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC), which also found greater risk in people describing themselves as light drinkers.
The new study focused on Canada, where researchers linked alcohol consumption with one of the seven new cases of cancer last year. Of the 7,000 cases, the study linked to alcohol consumption, researchers say that 24 percent of them were breast cancer, 20 percent was colon cancer, 15 percent was rectal cancer and 13 by Hundred were hepatic and oral cancers.
The health risk raised by the consumption of light and moderate alcohol, defined as no more than two drinks per day, has been a contentious issue. Many studies in recent months have linked this type of alcohol consumption with an increase in risks involving everything, from the heart to the health of the brain.
The researchers behind this new study establish that all alcohol consumption comes at risk, at least when focusing on school-related cancers. The co-author of the study, Dr. Jurgen Rehm, said, for example, that a single glass of daily wine has been linked to an increase of 6 percent at the risk of breast cancer for women.
Another co-author of study, Dr. Kevin Shield, elaborated on how to drink alcohol can increase your risk of developing various types of cancers:
Alcohol causes cancer in many ways. The main mechanism of how alcohol causes, cancer is through the repair of DNA deterioration. Additional pathways include chronic alcohol consumption that results in liver cirrhosis, and alcohol leading to a disregulation of sex hormones, which leads to breast cancer. Alcohol also increases the risk of smoking head and neck cancer, as it increases the absorption of tobacco carcinogens.
The findings are particularly related to the light of mass improvement in alcohol consumption denounced during the pandemic. The past research discovered that many people began to drink more when blocks occurred, highlighting an aspect of the possible long-term public health consequences that can manifest long after the pandemic is over.
