Alcohol vs. Lifestyle - Cancers

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Parent Category: Health & Fitness

Category: News & Research

Created on Wednesday, 06 June 2012 00:00

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Cancers

Kidney Cancer (also called renal cell carcinoma)

• An analysis of data from 12 prospective studies that included 760,044 men and women who were tracked for seven to 20 years found that moderate drinkers are about 30% less likely to develop kidney cancer than are abstainers.155

• A prospective study of 59,237 Swedish women age 40-76 found that those who consumed at least one drink per week had a 38% lower risk of kidney cancer than did abstainers or those who drank less. For women over 55, the risk dropped by two-thirds (66%).156

• A study of a large cohort of Finnish males found that risk of kidney cancer declined as total consumption of alcohol increased.157

• Data from 88,759 women who were tracked for 20 years and from 47,828 men who were observed for 14 years indicate that alcohol reduces the risk of kidney cancer in both men and women.158

• Compared with nondrinkers, men who drank one or more drinks per day had a 31% lower risk of kidney cancer among 161,126 Hawaii–Los Angeles Multiethnic Cohort participants.159

• A study of postmenopausal women in Iowa over a 15-year period found that those who drank alcohol, compared with nondrinkers, had a significantly lower risk of developing kidney cancer. This relationship persisted after taking into account many other confounding factors.1

Thyroid Cancer

• A prospective study of over one and one-quarter million (1,280,296) women in the U.K. confirmed the finding that drinking alcohol significantly reduces the risk of developing of thyroid cancer.171

• Data from almost one-half million (490,000) men and women in the U.S. found that increased alcohol consumption decreased the risk of thyroid cancer.172

• A country-wide population-based case-control study in New Caledonia found that the incidence of thyroid cancer was negatively associated with drinking alcohol among both men and women.173 That is, consuming alcohol was found to be associated with a lower risk of developing thyroid cancer.

• A study of women identified through the Cancer Surveillance System (CSS), a population-based cancer registry in Washington State, found that higher levels of alcohol consumption were associated with lower risk of developing thyroid cancer.174

Other

The moderate consumption of alcohol appears to be beneficial to reducing or preventing other diseases and health problems, including the following:

The Common Cold. Research has found moderate drinkers to be more resistant than abstainers to five strains of the common cold virus. Those who consumed two to three drinks daily had an 85% greater resistance. Those drinking one to two drinks daily had a 65% lower risk and those who drank less than daily had a 30% lower risk than abstainers. 175

Intermittent Claudication (IC). In a study of 18,339 observations, researchers found that drinking alcohol in moderation significantly reduces the risk of intermittent claudication. IC is associated with a two- to four-fold increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.176

Metabolic Syndrome. To examine the relationship between alcohol consumption and metabolic syndrome, a meta-analysis was conducted of seven studies with 22,000 participants. Metabolic syndrome is a dangerous cluster of risk factors that increase the risk for coronary artery disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

The analysis found that drinking alcohol in moderation significantly reduced the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. The positive effects existed among men who consumed up to a little over three drink per day and among women who consumed up to one and one-half drinks each day.177

Peripheral Artery Disease. Harvard researchers found moderate drinkers to be almost 1/3 less likely to suffer Peripheral Artery Disease (a significant cause of death among the elderly) than those consuming less than one drink per week.178

The list continues with many others, such as essential tremors,179 hepatitis A,180 kidney stones,181 macular degeneration (a major cause of blindness),182 Pancreatic Cancer,183 Parkinson's disease,184 poor physical condition in the elderly,185 stress and depression,186 and type B gastritis.187