It is often advertised that drinking a glass of wine a day is a heart-healthy choice. Although there are warnings against the use of other substances such as cigarettes, alcohol in moderation is usually considered good, but this may be changing.
The American Dietary Guidelines for Americans encourages people to avoid large amounts of alcohol and suggests sticking to two or fewer drinks a day for men and one or fewer drinks a day for women.
Yet The latest guide by American Surgeon General Vivek Murthy suggests that even small amounts of alcohol can be harmful and may increase the risk of cancer.
“Alcohol is a well-established and preventable cause of cancer, accounting for approximately 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States – more than the 13,500 alcohol-related traffic fatalities annually in the United States – and yet most Americans are not aware of this risk,” adviser to the Surgeon General states.
In his advice, he points to research that has shown a clear link between alcohol consumption and a higher risk of developing seven types of cancer, including breast cancer.
“We now know that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption and that alcohol is a known carcinogen,” he says Dr. Faiz BhoraProfessor of Surgery and Regional Chief of Surgery at Hackensack Meridian Health and Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.
“The mechanism of cell damage is well understood. It causes oxidative stress and impairs DNA repair, as well as other mechanisms leading to cell cycle dysregulation and tumorigenesis.”
The surgeon general is calling on producers of alcoholic beverages, such as beer and spirits, to update their warning labels to include the cancer risk. Currently, drinks containing mainly alcohol warn against drinking alcohol by pregnant people and driving under the influence.
It would be difficult to find benefits from drinking alcohol.
Dr. Faiz Bhora
Department of Surgery at Hackensack Meridian Health and Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine
“It's more social and political pressures that prevent us from taking appropriate action, which would actually be putting a warning label on a substance that is clearly toxic,” Bhora tells CNBC Make It.
“Shares of alcohol makers including Molson-Coors and Anheuser-Busch initially fell more than 1% following the advisory,” CNBC reported.
Even previous claims about the positive effects of drinking a glass of red wine a day are being questioned. Previous research has shown that a small amount of alcohol a day can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to the methodology. New York Times.
“It would be difficult to find benefits from alcohol consumption,” Bhora says. “Maybe stress reduction with impairment of some emotional abilities (but) I'm not even sure that's necessarily a good thing.”
“We've always heard stories about people in their 80s and 90s living a healthy lifestyle and putting it down to a glass of wine or scotch. “I'm not sure there's any real scientific correlation to that,” he said. he adds.
Bhora says alcohol consumption is deeply ingrained in our culture, and “people use it as a crutch in social interactions (and) for emotional reasons.” Nowadays, however, people are “very comfortable refusing alcohol in a restaurant or at a party for health reasons, and I believe this is something that should be encouraged and supported as a first step.”
For starters, Bhora suggests that “moving away from the one-drink-a-day concept is good or safe,” he says. Try to only drink alcohol on weekends if you're limiting your intake, and slowly eliminate it completely from your diet if you feel like it, says Bhora.
“When many of my friends and colleagues who either stopped drinking alcohol or cut back significantly found it liberating,” Bhora says.
“They no longer need it for social interactions, they have much greater clarity of thought, and in many cases they are much more productive.”
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