Researchers Trace Many Cancers To Alcohol

Health researchers have discovered that alcohol is a leading contributor to seven types of cancers.

These include cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon, rectum and female breast.

The research is aimed at exposing the dangers of alcohol especially at a time when cancer is becoming a major cause of deaths around the world.

Though other factors like the environment and heredity have been noted as possible triggers of the disease, the researchers say that alcohol’s cancer-causing properties tend to be downplayed, while its benefits often get played up.

As a result, people continue to endanger their lives thinking it is either fun, enjoyment or beneficial.

Physician and alcohol researcher at Boston University Medical Centre, Timothy Naimi, who also co-authored the research, confirmed a strong relationship between cancer and alcohol but lamented that there had been no emphasis for the reduction of its consumption since it is not always emphasized as a cancer prevention strategy.

The researchers proved that alcohol could result in premature death from any cause, each alcohol-related cancer death resulted in 18 years of potential life lost.

In other words, a person who dies at age 50 as a result of cancer resulting from alcohol would likely have lived up to 68.

To successfully result in cancer, according to one theory, is that it damages DNA material in cells.

The report which has just been published in the American Journal of Public Health says worldwide, four percent of all cancer deaths are due to alcohol use.

“People need to know the impact of alcohol on cancer deaths because it’s another reason why they should not drink excessively,” Naimi stressed even though there is a study that showed that moderate intake of alcohol may be good for the heart.

“Overall, alcohol kills many times more people than it saves,” he added.

He stressed further that those who took three or more alcoholic drinks a day accounted for the highest number of cancer deaths, adding that even those who engaged in low-dose consumption are also at risk.

The researchers, who made attempt to explain what they called the complicated process of arriving at the result, said they reviewed the United States mortality data from 2009 for all the seven types of cancers.

They further analysed previous cancer studies that gave the death rate resulting from the consumption of alcohol as well as the sales figure and consumption rate of alcohol from 2009.

The result of the research shows that alcohol consumption resulted in an estimated 18,200 to 21,300 cancer deaths in 2009 alone. This amounted to 3.2 percent to 3.7 percent of all cancer deaths in the US in the period under review.

The report further showed that among men, cancers of the oral cavity, the pharynx, the larynx and the esophagus were the most fatal ones linked to alcohol.

For the women, breast cancer was the most obvious type of cancer linked to alcohol, according to the research.

—Eromosele Ebhomele