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The study was carried out by a team led by Dr. Jasmine
Lew, a fourth year medical student at the University of Chicago. It followed
more than 184,000 postmenopausal women for seven years on the average.
The study found that those who had less than one drink
a day (14gms alcohol) had a 7% increased risk for breast cancer compared
to those who did not drink at all. Two drinks a day increased the risk
by 32% (28 gms of alcohol). Women who drank three or more glasses of alcohol
each day had a 51% higher risk.
Lew is conducting this research as a recipient of the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute-National Institutes of Health Research
Scholarship at the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Epidemiology
and Genetics. She and her research colleagues from NCI say their analysis
could not support a definitive conclusion as to whether alcohol influences
development of other breast cancer tumour types. "But we have enough
numbers to study alcohol's influence on ER+/PR+ breast cancer," cites
the conference abstract.
Previous data has suggested that consuming alcohol increases
the risk of breast cancer, although the precise mechanisms have not been
clarified.
According to Lew, alcohol increases a postmenopausal
woman's risk of developing cancer due to its ability to interfere with
the metabolising of estrogens in the body.
"This suggests that a woman should evaluate consumption
of alcohol along with other known breast cancer risk factors, such as
use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT)," she added.
She said it was too early to make public health recommendations
but said women should talk with their doctors to assess risk factors and
consider lifestyle changes.
DelWine Perspective
Similar findings have been reported earlier in several
studies. During the 2nd International Heart and Health Convention which
I attended in Napa in early 2003, the issue had also been discussed by
doctors, notably Dr. Curtis Ellison, a Professor of Medicine and Public
Health at Boston University, and Director of the Institute on Lifestyle
and Health, who has been involved in several such studies.
Dr. Ellison had emphasised-and this point has been highlighted
by many other studies and findings - that women are safe only up to one
drink a day while the men are ok with two-due to biological factors. In
fact, Dr. Ellison admits that women are put to a higher risk of 10% even
with one glass of wine.
His recommendations were that consumption of folic acid
in the form of foliate pills, which women are prescribed generally post-
pregnancy, reduces the increased risk to practically nil. I had discussed
it with him after my return. I also talked to a few senior doctor friends
who told me that the pills were easily available as un-prescribed drugs
for about Rs.3 (8 cents) a strip. In fact, multi-vitamins for women generally
include it as an ingredient too.
Indian Wine Academy has, ever since, warned women
of the increased breast cancer risk and advised wine - drinking women
to take foliate tablets regularly and discuss with their doctor.
Delhi Wine Club had organised a seminar at the French
Embassy, New Delhi, India in 2004, on 'The French Paradox' (Dr. Ellison
had appeared on the American TV programme, '60 minutes', in 1990 along
with the French scientist, Dr. Sergio Reynaud when the term was coined)
where I was a speaker too. A lady doctor in the audience - I think she
was a cancer specialist, had admonished me for making a public statement
where I 'created' a scare by mentioning the increased risk and cautioning
women about excess consumption of wine or any other form of alcohol.
In this connection, readers are recommended to read an
interview of Dr. Ellison with ABC
TV 9 years ago.
A pertinent point which this and similar studies fail
to address is that in Europe, especially in Italy and France, women drink
a much higher quantity of wine and yet these risks are found to be much
lower. 'We know that women in Italy, France and Spain consume up to ten
times as much wine as women in the UK, Ireland and the US, yet their rates
of breast cancer are actually somewhat lower,' says Dr. Ellison in another
article
Subhash Arora
April 14, 2008
Our health recommendations are the same as before-
A glass a day for women and two for men. Women should take foliate pills
under their doctor's advice. Red wine is desirable, but you should drink
what you prefer. Drink less but drink better-Editor
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