Alcohol Increases Risk of Colon Cancer by 40%

http://www.talktofrank.com

                Alcohol’s role in health intrigues many medical researchers. There are those who say one or two drinks a day is good for your heart. Yet alcohol’s negative impact on the liver is well known. Through the years, there have been numerous studies attempting to understand the real impact of alcohol on our health. A recent report finds a link between alcohol consumption and colorectal cancer… and the news is not good.

                Eunyoung Cho, ScD, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, gathered information from eight studies that followed subjects for up to 16 years in North America and Europe. From this, she developed a database to evaluate certain behaviors and health risk factors. Dr. Cho found that drinking two alcoholic beverages a day was only slightly associated with an increased risk for colorectal cancer, but people who drank more than three alcoholic beverages a day had a 40% higher risk compared with people who did not drink alcohol at all. This was true for both men and women in the study and for all types of alcohol. The findings are especially significant, since death due to colorectal cancer is second only to that due to lung cancer.

                We talked with Dr. Cho to discuss her findings. Because it is not unusual for heavy drinkers to also have a poor diet, we inquired about the people in her database. Dr. Cho responded that she made adjustments for dietary habits in determining results of the study, as well as for smoking, age and any other factors that had been identified as potentially impacting the findings.

                According to Dr. Cho, there are several theories about why alcohol is associated with colorectal cancer, but many researchers think it is due to something called acetaldehyde, which is produced in the colon. The liver converts the ethyl alcohol to acetaldehyde, which is then further converted into harmless acetic acid. But too much acetaldehyde can spill out into the bloodstream. Acetaldehyde is not harmless. In fact, it is more toxic than alcohol and is responsible for the unpleasant effects of hangovers, say Dr. Cho – and it is a known carcinogen.

References:

Eunyoung Cho, ScD, assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and associate epidemiologist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, both in Boston.

                Andrew L. Rubman, ND, associate professor of clinical medicine, I.W. Lane College of Integrative Medicine, Winter Park, Fl, and medical director, Southbury Clinic for Traditional Medicines, Southbury, CT.