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A new study reinforces the connection between alcohol consumption and cancer.
A meta-analysis showed that alcohol had been linked to seven different types of cancer.
A researcher from the University of Otago from New Zealand made a review of all scientific studies connecting alcohol and cancer and managed to discover seven types of diseases that can be linked to alcohol consumption.
The seven types of cancer are oropharynx, esophagus, larynx, liver, female breast, colon, and rectum. Other studies show that the consumption is linked to pancreas, skin, and prostate cancer.
The risk of becoming sick is in direct connection with the amount of alcohol that is consumed and with the genetic predisposition of the person.
The summary of biological and epidemiological research led to a causal link between alcohol and cancer that is found to be more significant than the standard connection that the scientists used to project on the matter.
The other studies had only revealed associations between the two elements. On the contrary, the present research suggests a causal relation, which means that alcohol consumption can cause cancer.
The clinical cases investigated by the research team included more than half of a million cancer deaths that had been caused by drinking during 2012. The number represents almost 6% of the cancer mortality worldwide.
Somewhat intuitively true, heavy drinking makes up for a greater risk to die from cancer. The authors believe that even the moderate drinkers present a high risk to die of the disease.
Previous studies have shown that casual drinking can protect against cardiovascular disease.
The author of the study recommends people to take drinking seriously and to be skeptical on the alcohol literature that may criticize the correlation with cancer.
However, the paper makes a review of the studies connecting alcohol with cardiovascular disease. Even if the connection is not as strong, the author points out that the vast majority of factors that increase the risk of heart disease are more prevalent in abstainers.
This only means that the drinking is correlated with a healthier lifestyle, and the latter is what in fact protects people from that particular disease, while cancer is a completely different medical condition which is much harder to be kept under control. Also, no one managed to determine how cancer appears.
A survey showed that nine of ten people are not aware of the connection between cancer and drinking, even if the National Cancer Institute had published an official opinion ever since 2013. People are biased by the amount of studies that pretend that alcohol has health benefits.
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