Breast cancer and alcohol 20% link

[fortyfour]

I assume its not widely known about the link between breast cancer and alcohol so i think more of us need to know about it.

Obesity is also a risk, so if you've got both happening, you are really not doing yourself any favours.

 

[Monster2]

I assume its not widely known about the link between breast cancer and alcohol so i think more of us need to know about it.

Professor Olver says the risk of cancer is quite small if a person consumes only a couple of alcoholic drinks per day.

Well........ that's probably why. From reading the article, one can infer that the risk is only there if you are a heavy drinker. Personally, I have NEVER drank "only a couple of alcoholic drinks per day" That seems like a lot to me. I know some people have wine with dinner, but that's still not a "couple drinks". In fact, there has never been a time in my life when I went out drinking more than twice a month.

 

[San2]

Agree. I'd consider somebody who has two or more alcoholic drinks PER DAY a heavy drinker. Guess that would explain why it's not widely known...it should be 'Heavy drinking might be linked to breast cancer'. It just doesn't apply to a wide part of the population.

 

[fortyfour]

In this country a lot of people drink more than two drinks a day. I never knew that alcohol was a risk at all for breast cancer until i asked my gp what was the main risk factor for breast cancer.

Its only fairly recently that its been declared that two drinks a day is the healthy limit.

One of neighbours is in the end stages of breast cancer. She's both overweight and never stopped drinking so i presume she didn't know that alcohol was a risk factor. She did try to manage her weight - but unsuccessfuly - and also took up daily exercise for as long as she could. She did everything but stop drinking alcohol.

Anyhow the reason i posted it on here was because i've seen a few posters who talk about having problems limiting their alcohol consumption, so i thought it was relevant to this forum.

 

[Monster2]

Anyhow the reason i posted it on here was because i've seen a few posters who talk about having problems limiting their alcohol consumption, so i thought it was relevant to this forum.

Yup, it is relevant, and helpful. However, I just don't see that someone would cut down their drinking because of a possible warning about breast cancer. Since those surgeon general labels on cigarettes were never really effective in reducing smoking. Maybe I'm a cynic.
PROVE ME WRONG, QUIT DRINKING!
(I wonder if that will work.. probably not... sigh.....)
On a secondary note, my initial reaction was born out of my great dislike for media sensationalism. The article says "DRINKING DOES THIS".... while almost hiding that it really has to be a significant amount of alcohol to be a problem.