Just the Facts (LESSON 5)
To examine your relationship with alcohol, I believe it’s important to understand what it is actually doing in your brain and body in order to have a basic knowledge about the substance you’re consuming.
There are three articles in today’s lesson to provide some foundational knowledge on the increased cancer risk caused by alcohol on breast and other cancers, as well as a January 2023 article by the World Health Organization about our overall health.
Alcohol & Breast Cancer.
In the U.S., we acknowledge October as Breast Cancer Awareness month, and I wanted to take the opportunity to make sure everyone participating in this program (especially the women) knew some of the facts about alcohol and the linkage to breast cancer. Copied directly from www.Breastcancer.org:
“Research consistently shows that drinking alcoholic beverages — beer, wine, and liquor — increases a woman's risk of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. Alcohol can increase levels of estrogen and other hormones associated with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. Alcohol also may increase breast cancer risk by damaging DNA in cells.
Compared to women who don't drink at all, women who have three alcoholic drinks per week have a 15% higher risk of breast cancer. Experts estimate that the risk of breast cancer goes up another 10% for each additional drink women regularly have each day.”
This information is provided by Breastcancer.org.
Donate to support free resources and programming for people affected by breast cancer.
Alcohol has broader health impacts as it relates to cancer and other diseases.
Alcohol has been linked to cancer of the mouth, throat (pharynx), voice box (larynx), esophagus, liver, colon and rectum and breast. According to the American Cancer Society, highlights copied below:
“It’s the ethanol in the alcoholic beverage that increases the cancer risk, not the other things in the drink.
Once in the body, alcohol can be converted into acetaldehyde, a chemical that can damage the DNA inside cells and has been shown to cause cancer in lab animals.
The amount of alcohol someone drinks over time seems to be the most important factor in raising cancer risk
Alcohol and its byproducts can also damage the liver, leading to inflammation and scarring (cirrhosis). As liver cells try to repair the damage, they can end up with mistakes in their DNA, which could lead to cancer.”
For each of these cancers, the more alcohol you drink, the higher your cancer risk. But for some types of cancer, most notably breast cancer, consuming even small amounts of alcohol can increase risk.”
Substance name:
Ethanol
Molecular formula:
C2H60
Synonyms:
Ethyl alcohol
Fun Facts About Ethanol.
Ethanol is present in alcoholic drinks (beer, wine, spirits) when diluted
Ethanol is a clear, colourless liquid with a characteristic pleasant odor and burning taste. It is highly flammable.
Ethanol is used to dissolve other chemical substances and mixes readily with water and many organic liquids.
Ethanol's first use was to power an engine in 1826
Ethanol also was used as a lighting fuel in the 1850s
It is used as a topical agent to prevent skin infections in pharmaceutical preparations (e.g. rubbing compounds, lotions, tonics, colognes), cosmetics, and in perfumes.
Labelled as “ethanolblended fuels,” it is used as an industrial solvent for fats, oils, waxes, resins, and hydrocarbons. It is also used to make:
Many chemical compounds, lacquers, plastics and plasticizers, rubber and rubber accelerators,
Aerosols, mouthwash products, soaps and cleaning preparations
Polishes, surface coatings, dyes, inks, adhesives, preservatives,
Pesticides, explosives, petrol additives/substitutes, elastomers
Antifreeze
It is the same chemical that is used in gasoline today.
Perhaps this section should be called “Not-So-Fun Facts About Alcohol.”
No Level of Alcohol Consumption is Safe for our Health.
COMMENT BELOW: Any new insights from todays’s articles? Did you learn anything you didn’t know about the impact of alcohol on your health?
The intent of today’s lesson is not to use scare tactics, but to fill in any knowledge gaps that you might have. My stance is: “Drink Knowledgeably” not “Drink Responsibly.” If you’re going to drink it, at least understand the potential health impacts!
