alcohol and re-occurance of cancer--meta study

Sorry Elinda - just realised I wrote per day and it should have been per week.

It’s confusing because US unit sizes are different to ours, so it’s easiest to compare in grams. This study recommends the optimal level is 5 - 14.9 grams per day. UK guidelines are based on one unit equalling 8 grams, and a daily maximum of 2-3 units AND a weekly maximum of 14 units (ie if you have 3 units on one day, you should have only 1 unit to compensate on another day). So in grams that would be a daily limit of 16 - 24 grams and a weekly limit of 112g. A unit here is a small glass of wine.

Not sure if that helps or not!

I think you mean the other way round - per day not per week.

So, if I’ve got this right the optimal amount would be less than 2 units per day. BUT this optimal amount needs to balance risk of recurrance of BC with risk of heart disease (and for those of us already diagnosed we’d need to factor that in our decision).

Actually a small glass of wine (175 ml) is 2 units according to NHS website! Therefore not as much as one small glass per day in the above. elinda x

It’s tricky. My family has a very strong history of heart failure, stroke, high blood pressure etc and very early deaths as a result of that. Not a hint of cancer in the family anywhere until mine happened. So a moderate amount of red wine seemed to be a sensible choice. If it’s increased the risk of recurrence for me slightly, I think I’ll have to take that chance and balance it against my risks of heart/circulation problems (since I already have treatment for blood pressure).

Good to have someone who understands the medical research terms, though - so complicated! Wish they’d write a ‘ordinary person’s guide’ to their bloomin research so we can all benefit properly.

Ann x

Ann - really glad this has been helpful in deciding what’s best for you. x

Elinda - (facepalm) - glad you can work out what I really meant! I think my brain’s full. x