Talk With the Doc: Drinking alcohol increases personal cancer risk
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It is reported by our USA NIH (National Institutes of Health) that alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, after tobacco abuse and obesity. The following summary of this important cancer prevention information is from the USA NIH.
In 2019, an estimated 96,730 cancer cases were related to alcohol consumption including 42,400 in men and 54,330 in women. This translates to nearly 1 million preventable cancer cases over ten years in the United States. The largest burden of alcohol-related cancer in the USA is for breast cancer in women with an estimated 44,180 cases in 2019, representing 16.4 percent of the approximately 270,000 total breast cancer cases for women. World-wide, it is reported that 741,300 cancer cases were related to alcohol consumption in 2020 and 185,100 of those cases were related to consumption of approximately two alcohol drinks daily or even fewer.
In the USA, there are about 20,000 alcohol-related cancer deaths every year. This is greater than the number of alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities that is reported to be about 13,500 annually in the USA. Alcohol-related cancer deaths shorten the lives of those who die by an average of 15 years. Annually, a total of about 305,000 years of potential life are lost due to alcohol-related cancer deaths. Breast cancer accounts for the 60 percent of alcohol-related cancer deaths in women. It is further reported that about 33 percent of liver cancer and about 21 percent of colorectal cancer account for the majority of alcohol-related cancer deaths in men.
About 83 percent of the estimated 20,000 U.S. alcohol-related cancer deaths per year occur when people consume alcohol at levels above the recommended guidelines to limit consuming only two drinks daily for men and one drink daily for women. Nonetheless, the remaining 17 percent of the estimated 20,000 USA alcohol-related cancer deaths per year also occur at even when these recommended alcohol consumption are followed.
Despite clear evidence demonstrating the effect of alcohol consumption on cancer risk, there is a large gap in public understanding of this cancer risk. In a 2019 survey, 45 percent of Americans recognized alcohol use as a risk factor for cancer compared to 91percent of Americans who recognized the risk of radiation exposure, 89 percent for tobacco use, 81 percent for asbestos exposure, and 53 percent for obesity. Additionally, public awareness of alcohol consumption as a cancer risk factor has not substantially improved over nearly two decades, even as more scientific evidence documenting the link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk has increased.
It is very important to be aware of this documented scientific evidence that chronic alcohol consumption does indeed cause multiple cancers. When you are making decisions regarding your personal alcohol use, know that frequent alcohol consumption can increase your risk of being diagnosed with various cancers, including breast cancer, liver cancer, and colorectal cancer. We also need to remind ourselves that our personal lifestyle choices will always have a significant on our personal health and well-being.