US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy issued an advisory Friday warning Americans that alcohol consumption can increase their cancer risk and called for an updated health warning label on alcoholic beverages.
CNN reports that the surgeon general’s advisories are strongly stated warnings meant to deliver clear messages about health risks. While advisories are uncommon, they are reserved for issues that need immediate awareness and action.
They often become turning points in the nation’s health habits. a 1964 surgeon general’s report on smoking, for example, started to change the perception that cigarettes were not harmful.
With the new advisory, help may come for drinking which was once thought to have some health benefits. The new report aims to dispel any notion that alcohol is harmless.
Murthy said, “Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths in the United States – greater than the 13,500 cancer-associated traffic crash fatalities in the US – yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk.”
About 70% of Americans consume alcohol, according to Dr Brian P. Lee, a liver specialist at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California who researches the health effects of alcohol, and many are confused about whether an occasional drink is good or bad for them.
Only 45% of Americans surveyed by the American Institue for Cancer Research in 2019 said they believed that drinking alcohol causes cancer, the new advisory notes.
Lee said the new surgeon general’s report is more in tune with modern evidence. “Evgen light drinking … really, there’s no benefit, and in fact, there may be harm.”
Alcohol is the third-leading preventable cause of cancer in the US, after tobacco and obesity, according to the new advisory.
It notes that the link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk is well-established for at least seven types of cancer: breast, colorectal, oesophagus, liver, mouth, throat, and voice box. The risk remains regardless of what type of alcohol is consumed; it increases with greater consumption.
Although there has been a decade-long perception that some alcohol – especially red wine – could benefit health, increasing evidence has mounted against alcohol consumption because of its health risks.
However, differences in opinion persist: A report in December from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that moderate drinking – two drinks a day or fewer for men and one for women – may be associated with lower risks of cardiovascular disease. It also found that moderate drinking was associated with a higher risk of certain types of cancer.
Dr Otis Brawley, an oncologist at Johns Hopkins University and former chief medical and scientific officer for the American Cancer Society said, “There was actually a time when we thought red wine increases risk of some cancers, but the positive effects for cardiovascular disease overwhelm the negative effects for cancer.”
However, over the past three years, a steady stream of scientific evidence and comprehensive research reviews have disproved the idea.
Brawley said, “People have to be warned. There is no safe amount of alcohol.”
The advisory notes that alcohol cancer in at least four ways. It is metabolized into a chemical called acetaldehyde, which damages DNA. Damaged DNA can then cause cells to divide out of control, leading to cancer.
A recent IARC report found that about 20% of the nearly 75,000 lip and mouth cancers diagnosed worldwide each year are caused by drinking alcohol.
Alcohol also creates unstable molecules called free radicals that can damage DNA and lead to cancer.
It alters levels of hormones, like estrogen and testosterone, which increases cancers at hormone-sensitive sites like the breast and prostate.
Alcohol also depletes levels of important nutrients, such as B vitamins and folate, which help protect the body against cancer, said Dr Shuji Ogino, a professor of epidemiology and pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Alcohol is a powerful solvent. When it comes into contact with other carcinogens like cigarettes, it extracts higher levels of cancer-causing substances from those products and potentiates their effects. That means it is an especially dangerous companion for any kind of tobacco product, including smokeless tobacco.
“It’s no longer two plus two equals four. It’s two plus two equals six,” said Lauby-Secretan.
For cancers like those of the breast, mouth and throat, the risk may start to develop with one or fewer drinks per day, according to the surgeon general’s office. It also noted that any individual’s cancer risk is influenced by a number of factors, including their own biology and environment.
Alcohol increases cancer risk for both sexes, but the risks of drinking are higher for women than men.
Surveys show that certain groups are getting the moderation message. Mocktails are gaining social acceptance as a way to cut back, and spirits manufacturers are offering more nonalcoholic alternatives to their products, too.
Younger adults in the US have already started to view drinking as less healthy; an August Gallup poll found that almost half of Americans say that having one or two drinks a day is bad for a person’s health – the highest percentage recorded in the survey’s 23 years. Younger adults were most likely to say drinking is bad for their health.
