After the U.S. surgeon general called for cancer risk warnings to be included on alcoholic beverage labels, the question for many Americans may be: How many drinks—if any—can be consumed safely? safe?
Dr. Vivek Murthy’s warning, published last Friday, points out that alcohol consumption is the third preventable cause of at least seven types of cancerafter smoking and obesity.
“Alcohol is a well-established and preventable cause of cancer, responsible for approximately 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States,” Murthy said in a statement.
The seven types of alcohol-related cancers include breast, colorectal, esophageal, liver and oral cancer. Breast cancer is the leading cause of alcohol-related cancer deaths in women; in the case of men, they are liver and colorectal cancer.
However, many people are unaware of this link. The surgeon general’s report indicated that fewer than half of Americans know that drinking alcohol can increase the risk of cancer; a 2022 study estimated it to be less than a third. And although research has accumulated in recent years supporting this link, there has been no corresponding increase in awareness.
By contrast, about 72% of American adults say they consume at least one drink a week, according to the surgeon general’s report. “The more alcohol consumed, the greater the risk of cancer,” the report added.
Many major public health agencies consider alcohol to be a leading cancer-causing agent. The International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization (WHO) considers it a Group 1 carcinogen, the highest levelalong with asbestos and formaldehyde. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health also agree on the relationship between alcohol and at least seven types of cancer.
Does that mean you have to stop drinking? Is there any amount of alcohol that experts consider safe? This is what you need to know.
How does alcohol cause cancer?
Dr. Jiyoung Ahn, a cancer epidemiologist and associate director of demographic research at NYU Perlmutter Langone Cancer Center in New York, told .com that there are several known ways that alcohol causes cancer.
The alcohol is converted in the body to acetaldehydewhich directly damages DNA, he explained, adding that “alcohol also induces oxidative stress, which also damages DNA.”
Additionally, alcohol can aggravate other cancer risk factors. For example, if you are a smoker and a drinker, the increased risk will be greater than if you just added the risks of each separately. “Tobacco carcinogens are more easily absorbed into the body,” Ahn said.
Finally, alcohol consumption can affect hormone levels, which can increase the risk of breast cancer, the surgeon general’s report stated.
How many drinks a week can increase the risk of developing cancer?
It is still unclear whether there is any amount of alcohol that does not increase the risk of cancer at all, as different studies have reached different conclusions. (A recent major report even linked moderate alcohol consumption to a lower risk of death.)
Murthy told NBC News that there is no “magic level” of safe alcohol consumption for the entire population. “What we do know is that less alcohol consumption implies a lower risk of cancer.”
The “excessive consumption” of alcohol, in particular, may increase the risk of certain types of cancerDr. Walter Willett, professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, told .com.
“We’ve known for a long time that … three, four, five drinks a day increased the risk of several types of (upper gastrointestinal) cancers,” Willett said. He added that just two drinks a day can increase the risk of cancer by 25% compared to those who do not consume alcohol.
What if I take less than that amount?
Whether there is an increased risk of cancer with lower amounts of alcohol depends on the type of cancer, Willett said.
“In the case of breast cancer, we saw a small increase in risk – about 15% compared to non-drinkers – with three or four drinks a week, or about half a drink a day,” he explained, adding that ” breast tissue appears to be especially sensitive to alcohol.”
“For most other cancers, we didn’t see a big increase until we get close to two drinks a day. For some types of cancer, especially those of the esophagus and mouth, smoking multiplies the risk.”
Two or three drinks a week are probably fine, Willett said. “My advice is to get a really good bottle of wine and enjoy every sip.”
Furthermore, the surgeon general used less than one drink a week as a baseline for cancer risk in his report, said Dr. Joseph Sparano, chief of hematology and medical oncology and deputy director of the Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine. from Mount Sinai.
The amount of alcohol least likely to increase cancer risk “seems to be less than one drink a week”Sparano told .com.
He also said that current dietary guidelines for alcohol consumption — one drink or less a day for women and two or less for men — actually appear to increase cancer risk.
“Alcohol consumption may partly explain the increased cancer risk we see in young people,” Sparano added. “Cancer in people under 50 years of age has increased at a rate of 1-2% annually over the past 15 years.”
Is there any type of alcohol that is more risky?
Experts say that it does not seem to matter what type of alcohol is consumed, whether it is beer, wine or spirits. What matters is the quantity.
For example, a 1983 study found that, more than any other dietary habits, “beer, wine and spirits increased the risk (of cancer) the most,” Willett explained.
The surgeon general’s report reached a similar conclusion: “Human data on alcohol and health show a strong association between alcohol consumption and increased cancer riskregardless of the type of alcohol.”
Does reducing alcohol consumption lower the risk?
Reducing alcohol consumption can lower the risk of cancer, Dr. Mary Beth Terry, associate director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, told .com. ago before reaching middle age.
“A recent meta-analysis suggested that reducing alcohol consumption could reduce the risk of the most common type of breast cancer,” Terry said.
Dr. Wei Zheng, director of the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, told NBC News that “some harm (from alcohol) may be permanent, (but) others can be reversed.” . (…) Reduce alcohol consumption will certainly decrease risks in the future“.
While it’s a positive development that the surgeon general suggested changing product labeling, we know from the example of smoking that this won’t be enough to get people to reduce alcohol consumption or quit smoking, Terry said, adding that the agencies Public health agencies should organize marketing campaigns to educate the public, just as they did with tobacco.
