by JeffN » Sat Feb 07, 2009 11:17 am
Greetings.
Welcome to the forum and thanks for the link.
However, this is one area will there will always be mixed info. Why? Simple. Alcohol, while it may have some potential benefit in relation to certain diseases like heart disease, it also has known health risks. So, many studies try to sort through this and figure out where the cut-off levels are and at what level the benefits outweigh the risks and what other factors may also either increase risk (obesity, exercise) or decease risk (folate, vit e, )
The recent studies i posted in this thread confirm the known relationship between alcohol and breast cancer in women. This is not a new story. The new information was that in this study it seemed that there was an increased risk with any amount of alcohol consumed by women. In addition, having 3 or more drinks everyday increased their risk similar to smoking cigarettes.
Previously it was though that if women consumed 4 or less drinks a week, there was no increased risk for breast cancer. Some studies said there was no risk if they consumed 7 or less drinks a week. In addition, several studies have shown that, either way, this increased risk is negated by consuming adequate folate. However, this is not a universally accepted conclusion or fact (see below) nor will it ever be that simple.
Alcohol is a known carcinogen, increasing the risk of many cancers. in addition, death from injuries, violence, suicide, poisoning, cirrhosis, and possibly hemorrhagic stroke are all related to alcohol use also.
The often touted benefit of alcohol is that moderate consumption reduces your risk for several diseases including heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's and may increase longevity.
We always here about the French Paradox. How the French eat as much if not more saturated fat and cholesterol then we in American do, but don't suffer the amount of heart disease we do because they are protected by the red wine they drink. There is no French Paradox. They may have fewer heart attacks, but they suffer more of almost every alcohol related illness and do not live any longer. This has been addressed in this forum
Some will argue that the benefit of alcohol only reduces the risks from diseases that we can virtually eliminate through other lifestyle factors (ie., diet) that do not have the risks of alcohol, so why add in a known carcinogen. And, there are those who argue that alcohol, in and of itself, confers health benefits above and beyond just reducing certain risk factors.
In my opinion.. people should not drink. What would be better is to first do everything they can to ensure optimal health through proper diet, exercise and lifestyle. Alcohol does not have to part of this. You can dramatically decrease your risk for many of the causes of premature death through a healthy alcohol-free diet and lifestyle.
If someone doesn't drink, they shouldn't start, especially if they have had problems in the past.
If they decide to drink, then research suggests that they should limit the amount of alcohol to no more than the equivalent of 1/2 a drink a day for women and no more than 1 drink a day for men. And, consuming more than 1-2 drinks at any one time is not healthy either. In addition, realize there may be some increased risk for certain cancers even at these levels
In Health
Jeff
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 83, No. 4, 895-904, April 2006
Folate intake, alcohol use, and postmenopausal breast cancer risk in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial
Background: Several epidemiologic studies suggest that higher folate intakes are associated with lower breast cancer risk, particularly in women with moderate alcohol consumption.
Objective: We investigated the association between dietary folate, alcohol consumption, and postmenopausal breast cancer in women from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial cohort.
Design: Dietary data were collected at study enrollment between 1993 and 2001. Folate content was assigned on the basis of prefortification (ie, pre-1998) databases. Of the 25 400 women participants with a baseline age of 55–74 y and with complete dietary and multivitamin information, 691 developed breast cancer between September 1993 and May 2003. We used Cox proportional hazard models with age as the underlying time metric to generate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs.
Results: The adjusted HRs were 1.19 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.41; P for trend = 0.04) for women reporting supplemental folic acid intake ≥400 µg/d compared with subjects reporting no supplemental intake. Comparison of the highest with the lowest quintile gave adjusted HRs of 1.04 (95% CI: 0.83, 1.31; P for trend = 0.56) and 1.32 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.68; P for trend = 0.03) for food and total folate intake, respectively. Alcohol consumption was positively associated with breast cancer risk (highest compared with lowest quintile: HR = 1.37; 95% CI: 1.08, 1.76; P for trend = 0.02); the risk was greatest in women with lower total folate intake.
Conclusions: Our results do not support the hypothesis that high folate intake reduces breast cancer risk; instead, they suggest that a high intake, generally attributable to supplemental folic acid, may increase the risk in postmenopausal women. However, our results confirm previous studies showing positive associations between moderate alcohol consumption and breast cancer.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 87, No. 3, 734-743, March 2008
Plasma folate, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12, and risk of breast cancer in women1,2,3
Background: B vitamins such as folate, vitamin B-6, and vitamin B-12 are coenzymes that are important for DNA integrity and stability. Deficiency in these B vitamins may promote tumor carcinogenesis.
Objective: We prospectively evaluated plasma concentrations of folate, pyridoxal 5-phosphate (PLP; the principal active form of vitamin B-6), and vitamin B-12 in relation to breast cancer risk.
Design: We included 848 incident cases of invasive breast cancer identified as of 31 March 2004, and 848 individually matched control subjects from 28 345 women in the Women's Health Study aged ≥45 y who provided blood samples and had no history of cancer and cardiovascular disease at baseline in 1993. Logistic regression controlling for matching factors and other risk factors for breast cancer was used to estimate relative risks (RRs) and 95% CIs. All statistical tests were 2 sided.
Results: Plasma concentrations of folate, PLP, and vitamin B-12 were not associated with overall risk of breast cancer. Women in the highest quintile group relative to those in the lowest quintile had multivariate RRs of 1.42 (95% CI: 1.00, 2.02) for plasma folate (P for trend = 0.21), 0.91 (95% CI: 0.63, 1.30) for plasma PLP (P for trend = 0.48), and 1.29 (95% CI: 0.92, 1.82) for plasma vitamin B-12 (P for trend = 0.18). However, higher plasma folate concentrations were moderately associated with an increased risk of developing premenopausal breast cancer (P for trend = 0.04) and for developing estrogen receptor (ER)–positive or progesterone receptor (PR)–positive breast tumors (P for trend ≤ 0.06). Conversely, an inverse association was seen between plasma PLP and postmenopausal breast cancer (P for trend = 0.04).
Conclusions: Data from this study suggest that B vitamins, including folate, vitamin B-6, and vitamin B-12, may confer little or no reduction in overall risk of developing breast cancer. The observed positive associations of folate status with risk of developing premenopausal breast cancer and ER-positive or PR-positive tumors are unexpected. Additional research is needed to elucidate the role of folate in breast cancer development.