It's All About the Alcohol

Photo: Seth Anderson

If you drink more than three alcohol-containing beverages a day (no matter what type) it's like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day in terms of increased risk of breast cancer.

If you are a heavy drinker and you think you are doing yourself a favor by choosing red wine, think again. Once you get to the "more than three drinks a day" mark, even red wine increases your risk for breast cancer by 30%. That's because it appears that the risk for breast cancer has to do with the alcohol itself.

This research comes from Kaiser Permanente Researchers who looked at data on more than 70,000 women.

The next bit of research touches the lives of a HUGE amount of American women. Women who drank one or two drinks a day had a 10% higher chance of breast cancer than women who drank less than a drink a day.

This may not sound like a lot to you, but when it comes to breast cancer, a 10% increase in risk is at least 10% too much!

[Findings were presented by Yan Li, MD, PhD, at the European Cancer Conference held Sept 23-27 in Barcelona, Spain]

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Alcohol Consumption - The Good and the Bad
• Walking The Alcohol Minefield

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