Binge drinking is sharply on the rise among women, a new study finds. And according to experts, these women could be at increased risk for cancer.
The new study, led by a group of researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and published in the journal PLOS Medicine, analyzed data from over 200,000 people and highlighted trends in drinking behaviors among 18- to 55-year-old adults based on age, gender and parenting status. From 2006 to 2018, binge drinking — defined as having five or more alcoholic drinks at a time — increased for both men and women in all age groups, with the only outlier being 18- to 29-year-old men with children. Among the 30- to 44-year-old women without children, binge drinking rates increased from 21% in 2006 to 42% in 2018.
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In a conversation about alcohol and breast cancer, Dr. Elizabeth Comen, a breast cancer oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and medical advisor to SurvivorNet shared that “with every drink, there is a linear response. What that means is … each drink increases a woman's risk for breast cancer. So binge drinking, it’s not good for anybody. And it’s also not good for a woman’s increased risk of breast cancer.”
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“Patients ask me this all the time, ‘Well, how much can I drink?'” she said. “If you want to have absolutely no risk from alcohol, then don’t drink at all. But probably having less than four glasses a week of alcohol … I would feel comfortable with that. … It’s important that patients understand the concept of relative risk with respect to alcohol.”
Binge drinking has been linked to other cancers as well, including head and neck cancers, esophageal cancers, liver cancer, and colorectal cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.
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Dr. Heather Yeo, a colorectal cancer surgeon at NewYork Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center and a medical advisor to SurvivorNet, echoed Dr. Comen’s point about moderation being key when it comes to alcohol and cancer.
“I think that, particularly for women, anything over a half a glass or a glass a day is probably not helping your overall health,” Dr. Yeo told SurvivorNet. “For men, they can probably go one to two glasses before they start seeing health effects.”
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