I’m a breast cancer survivor. I’m a wine drinker. Every time there is a new study that links the two, I pay close attention.
I also pay close attention when there is positive coverage for wine consumption.
But there’s something akin to tennis game between researchers. One side does a study that links breast cancer and wine directly. The other side does a story that shows the benefits of resveratrol, found in red wine, to protect the heart from damage, prevent one type of blindness, fight off some viruses, and 64 more pages of stories on the effects of reserveratrol on the Wine Industry News website.
So an article titled “The Truth About Breast Cancer and Drinking Red Wine—or Any Alcohol” would catch my eye. Author Elaine Schattner cites lots of big studies that come down on the side that drinking does increase the chance of breast cancer.
She puts the findings from the Nurses’ Health Study, which involved over 105,000 women monitored from 1980 until 2008, up against the most recent study of 36 premenopausal women which seemed to say a bit of red wine might prevent breast cancer.
As much as I would like to go along with the tiny study and enjoy my red wine without guilt or fear, the data from over 105,000 women trumps those findings. In the Nurses’ Study, investigators found that even moderate alcohol consumption — as few as three drinks per week — was associated with a statistically significant, slight increase in breast cancer rates. What’s more, the study revealed an apparent dose-response, adding credibility to the carcinogen hypothesis. The more a woman drank over the course of 20 years, the more likely she was to develop breast cancer.
That doesn’t mean there are no positive effects from resveratrol. Just that it’s a bad bet if you want to avoid breast cancer. And, from a personal point of view, if you can avoid it–you should.
To read Dr. Schattner’s essay, which is full of good facts and excellent thinking, click here.
To read more about the small study, follow this link.