By Dr. Dennis Ouma
Alcohol vs breast cancer
Several scientific studies indicate that there’s higher risk of breast cancer in drinkers. In 1988, investigators experimented all these by doing “meta- analysis” of all the pertinent studies on alcohol and breast cancer, and they found compelling evidence of dose- response relationship between breast cancer odds and alcohol.
Drinking roughly a couple of drinks a day boosted the risk of breast cancer by big percentage. Women who have breast cancer should not drink heavily and certainly not enough to get intoxicated. There is evidence that high blood levels of alcohol can facilitate breast cancer spread to other parts of the body.
The cancers spread more easily because the alcohol suppresses the immune system, namely the activity of natural killer cells that otherwise would have destroyed circulating tumor cells.
Go easy on alcohol
Alcohol can up your risk of cancers of the upper and lower digestive tract, liver, prostate, breast and in particular, of the colon. If you are a smoker, the combination of heavy smoking and drinking can make you up to × 40 more likely to develop throat cancer and almost × 100 more apt to get nasal cancer.
Heavy beer drinking is especially linked to rectal cancer. In a study, researchers indicated that men who drank five or more beers a day had double the risk of rectal cancer. Usually the more alcohol consumed, the greater the risk of various cancers.
Moreover, research suggest that drinking a lot of alcohol at one time can stimulate cancer to spread, by suppressing immune system. And that even a few episodes of intoxication or one binge drinking appear sufficient to promote tumor progression. This clearly indicate that alcohol consumption is indeed a risk for various cancers, with excessive consumption of alcohol as the greatest risk for the health of your body.
Ouma is Kenya-based lead food scientist
