Women: Think before you Drink
Alcohol has become a very confusing substance in recent memory. When I was growing up, it was something that only the adults drank, but it was something that could be very bad for me so I wasn’t encouraged to start. It was a substance associated with terrible addiction, yet served as a rite of passage as you got older and you were judged by friends for how well you could “hold your liquor.” I noticed how stories of being “smashed” or “lit” or “bombed” were worn on the sleeve with pride during Sunday morning brunch as we nursed our hangovers by gingerly sipping on orange juice and water. They were almost like stories of survival, as if to say, “hey, I didn’t get alcohol poisoning last night, round of mimosas for everybody!”
I never really abused alcohol, but I sipped from the goblet on occasion and had some fun with it. I’ve shared the stories but have always been responsible (always at least aware that driving was not an option with one or more drinks in me) and as I now have a son, I intend to pass on that sense of responsibility to him. Of course, I’d never tell him to go out and get smashed with his friends, but I’m fooling myself as a parent if I think my son (or any future children) will never even try alcohol. I do, however, expect him to be responsible with it, as both I and his mother have been throughout our lives. Besides, because it’s ripe with flavonoids and antioxidants, at least one glass of red wine per day is supposed to be good for you, right?
Well, if your head isn’t already swimming with the advantages, disadvantages and dangers of alcohol, let me add one more thing to consider. As reported by the CNN web site here, a team of researchers at Kaiser Permanente have found a possible link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer in women. The exhaustive study, consisting of approximately 70,000 women of various backgrounds and race, focused on the group’s drinking habits and how risks changed based on those habits.
Researchers found that it didn’t matter if women were drinking beer, wine or liquor; it was the amount of alcohol consumed that could swell the risks for breast cancer. Specifically, one drink per day increases a woman’s risk by 10%. Three or more could result in a 30% increase in risk. This pretty much negates the benefits that alcohol may bring, including a reduction in blood pressure and raising your HDL (”good”) cholesterol.
In light of this study, the American Cancer Society recommends that women drink only one glass of alcohol per day or less. Additional study is needed to determine why alcohol has such an effect on women, but in the meantime they will need to look for a balance that will work for their particular scenario. If heart disease is a consideration, or the benefits of the additional antioxidants and flavonoids outweigh the risks of cancer, then it may be worth that drink.
What do you think? I’ve always been of the opinion that the best decisions are those in which you’re the most informed. Drinking is an accepted part of our culture and many others in the world, not to mention legal, so are we giving it the kind of attention it needs? Just because it’s been around for centuries as a means to relax your senses and let go a little, should it not be taken as seriously as a drug such as cocaine? What other hidden benefits and pitfalls will we find as more studies are conducted, and better tests become available?
I can’t say in my life that I’ve ever met a woman who was burdened with breast cancer that also was a heavy drinker. Then again, most of the women I know now are still relatively young. As part of the increasing scope of this study, I’d be curious to know when the cancer typically appears, if the risk decreases as women decrease the amount of alcohol they consume, and whether the study was conducted just within the United States or if it was a global study and if geography might have anything to do with the results.
In the end, I think women will need to make a decision based on what they know of themselves and of their family history. Ultimately, breast cancer isn’t a story that I’d want to tell over brunch.
