October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
A recent podcast I listened to where Casey McGuire Davidson interviews triple board certified physician Stacey Devine had my wheels spinning on this topic. Everybody knows smoking causes cancer, but few us of know about the link between alcohol use and cancer. Except for non-melanoma skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the US. Approximately 300,000 or 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed per year.
A myth that I was certainly abiding by is that breast cancer is genetic and if you don’t have any family history, you’re safe. Shockingly, the majority of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history and only 15% have the BRCA gene.
We used to think that drinking alcohol, especially red wine, had either a negligible effect on health, or even a slight protective effect. Unfortunately, this isn’t true. What we understand now is that even moderate drinking comes with risk. The relationship between alcohol use and cancer is dose dependent, meaning that every drink consumed increases risk. Just three standard drinks per week increase breast cancer risk by 15% and every drink beyond that increases your risk by 10%.
“The fact that 70% of women don’t know about the link [between alcohol and] cancer is malpractice.”
I for one was never given this information by any of my physicians. Research suggests that physicians are aware of the link, but many feel uncomfortable talking with their patients about alcohol use creating a huge gap in public health awareness. As a mental health care provider (and member of the sisterhood of women who inhabit this earth), I feel the duty to fill in the gap and help spread the word. In truth, this information has affected my own decisions to cut back on alcohol.
Here’s what’s coming:
Over the next three months, I will be releasing several articles highlighting our culture’s relationship to alcohol including The Facts About Alcohol and How Alcohol Affects the Brain. My article, Women and Alcohol will explain how women’s use of alcohol has caught up to men’s in recent years and why women’s bodies process alcohol in a way that makes them more vulnerable to disease.
If you’ve ever questioned or wondered about,
what “healthy” drinking looks like
if you or a loved one are drinking in a problematic way
the neuropsychology of substance use
how the alcohol industry maintains the allure of drinking in spite of the negative health consequences
what “grey area” drinking is or the sober curious movement
then this info is for you! My hope is that there is something for everyone contained in these articles.
For further reading and listening:
Podcast:
Interview with Stacey Devine, MD: https://hellosomedaycoaching.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-breast-cancer-and-alcohol/
Articles:
Anderson, Benjamin et al., Health and Cancer Risks Associated with Low Levels of Alcohol Consumption, The Lancet: Public Health, January 2023, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(22)00317-6/fulltext
Campbell, Denis, Alcohol is a Direct Cause of Seven Forms of Cancer, Finds Study, The Guardian, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/22/alcohol-direct-cause-seven-forms-of-cancer-study
Carrol, Linda, Today, 2022, https://www.today.com/health/doctors-sound-alarm-alcohol-cancer-link-study-finds-americans-aware-rcna59696
Chen, Jia-Yan et al., Dose-Dependent Associations Between Wine Drinking and Breast Cancer Risk - Meta -Analysis Findings, NIH, PubMed, 2016. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27039752/
Connor, Jennie, Addiction, 2016, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/add.13477
Gapstur, Susan et al., Alcohol and Cancer: Existing Knowledge and Evidence Faps Across the Cancer Continuum, NIH, PubMed, 2022, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8755600/
Hopkins, Anna, National Cancer Institute, 2023, https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2023/cancer-alcohol-link-public-awareness
Roumeliotis & Winter, Alcohol Should Have Cancer Warning Labels, say Doctors and Researchers Pushing to Raise Awareness of Risk, CBC News, https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/alcohol-warning-labels-cancer-1.6304816
WHO, No Level of Alcohol Consumption is Safe for our Health, World Health Organization, 2023, https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health