The results of the study conducted by British scientists from the University of Oxford gave the ground to claim there is a link between an increased risk of cancer in women and moderate (and even low) consumption of alcohol. This was an unprecedentedly large-scale study involving 1.3 million of British women.
The project was called The Million Women Study, a national study of middle-aged women’s health in the UK. The study showed that 25% of women were abstainers while the rest admitted they drank, at least, 21 drinks per week, equal to 10 g of pure ethyl alcohol. Scientists say that, on average, women in “drinking group” consumed one drink per day.
The scientists then compared statistical data on cancer cases with information on alcohol consumption and found that even low consumption of alcohol was linked to the increased risk of various types of cancer. For example, regular consumption of alcohol was associated with the increased risk of breast cancer as well as liver and rectum cancers while other bad habits didn’t play any significant role. Women who also smoked had a greater risk of cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx, and throat.
Increasing alcohol consumption was accompanied with higher risk of any type of cancer mentioned above. What’s interesting, it didn’t matter what kind of alcohol drinks women consumed. The authors of the study estimated that each additional drink regularly consumed per day led to 15 additional cases of cancer per 1000 women up to 75 years of age.
Drawing the conclusion I’d like to cite editorial to the report on the study published in prestigious medical magazine Journal of National Cancer Institute. According to the report, Oxford studies showed that “there is no level of alcohol consumption that can be considered safe”.
Source of the image: guim.co.uk.
