There is no evidence that any type of food increases your risk of developing breast cancer. There is however plenty of evidence that alcohol does.
For those who don’t know, the studies revealed that the risk increase is 7-12% for EVERY UNIT of alcohol consumed. There isn’t a cancer organisation on the planet that doesn’t now advise patients to limit or abstain from alcohol. Cancer Research say “There is no doubt that alcohol can cause 7 types of cancer.”
It goes without saying that people must make up their own minds - but it helps to be in possession of all the facts beforehand so you can at least make informed decisions.
There are so many risk factors that we cannot avoid - being female, the age that we started our periods etc.
But limiting or stopping alcohol consumption is something we can actually do something about.
We undergo hormone therapy and chemotherapy and radiotherapy in order to reduce risk of recurrence. So why not cut out booze too given that alcohol has been proven to actively increase risk?
hmmm I’m not convinced by any of these statistics - my onc and all the nurses say you can drink and eat what you like and they wouldn’t do that if it put me at risk. quite frankly so many women get breast cancer that you could find a link to just about anything - there are loads of studies that “show” eating certain food types can increase the chances of cancer - the emphasis is never on the word can however
my own view ? I think it comes down to a faulty gene and that’s where it ends - beating myself up over stuff that I can’t or can no longer control is going to be worse for me than a glass of wine or a sausage or dairy or anything else for that matter.
You have an admirable respect for your onc and nurse RECS - but are you then saying that Cancer Research, Breast Cancer Care, Breakthrough, Breast Cancer Campaign, National Cancer Institute - along with all of the esteemed research scientists who have proven the link - are all wrong and are leading people up the garden path?
I feel so sorry for the research community I really do. All they can do is advise people of what the extensive research has revealed. If people don’t act on it then there really isn’t much else they can do about it. Especially when other medics are unsupportive.
How many decades has it taken for people to accept that cigarettes are implicated in cancer? It was first suspected in 1925!
There are no foodstuffs connected to increased breast cancer risk. None.
There are a LOT of spurious unproven claims about food - but no proven evidence whatsoever. Studies have revealed nothing.
Incidentally the alcohol risk values are higher for women who have already had cancer - the 7-12% per unit statistic applies to non-cancerous women. We are already at increased risk because we have had cancer.
Also the risk is increased in women who smoke and drink at the same time as the alcohol enables greater absorption of the carcinogens in smoke.
Choosing not to follow the advice about alcohol is one thing, but it is wrong to dimiss the research as “unconvincing”. The case against alcohol has been acknowledged and has been taken up as preventative health policy by cancer charities all over the world.
The evidence regarding the link between breast cancer and alcohol is very strong, so any health professional who dismisses this as insignificant is wrong. However, I can see why some oncologists/BCN may not want to pinpoint one particular cause as the information may be miscontrued. People tend to clutch at straws in the hopes of a cure etc and as we know, the causes of breast cancer are numerous and it would seem there need to be several factors in place, not just one, to make cells become malignant; alcohol being one. So, if someone stops drinking alcohol, it will help to reduce their risk of a recurrence, but can’t guarantee it. So focusing solely on alcohol may be taken out of context and thus give out the wrong idea and an element of falst hope - ie if you give up, you will be safe, which may not be the case. However, it is simply a no brainer not to reduce every single evidence based risk we have control over, including alcohol, to give ourselves the best chance - it may not work, but at least we have tried and it certainly won’t do any harm.
yes Molly I do have a great respect for my Onc and nurses - they are trained professionals and whilst I too have a professional training it is nothing to do with health care or cancer in particular.
I remain in my skepticism of research which is generally funded to prove a point and usually financially motivated.
As for me I chose to ignore it all and get on with rebuilding my shattered body in the best way I and my health team know how.
Sorry to butt in but surely we all need to be able to chill out and if having a couple of glasses of wine (or couple of halves of beer, every now and then as in my case) helps us. As long as we are not going mad and knocking it back like there’s no tomorrow. I don’t want to stop going out and sociallising with my friends, thats part of my life and I’ve still got a life to live.
This is where having an informed choice is very important. If you know that alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer, but choose drink it because you feel that it improves the quality of your life, then go ahead and do so. I drink wine - not copious amounts, but enough to increase my risk, but I choose to do so because I enjoy it. However, this is very different from kidding myself that it is harmless. We all make choices in life and most of the things we do on a daily basis are risky, but we try to strike a balance. As long as you have the correct information in front of you (and I agree with you RECS that some research is very flawed and not worth the paper it is written on, but in the case of alcohol and breast cancer, there is an overwhelming amount of good, unbiased, valid research which needs to be taken seriously), then make your choices.
Research could possibly be dismissed as questionable or biased if someone is going to benefit commercially.
But who is likely to benefit from the alcohol-cancer findings in a commercial sense? The water board?!Tea producers?!
It’s not as if pork farmers have funded a study telling us to eat more pork because it cures cancer! We are being advised to ABSTAIN from consumption of something that is essentially a drug - so who is going to benefit commercially from this advice?
Healthy scepticism with regard to research is all well and good - but not when you throw the baby out with the bathwater.
The alcohol-cancer link has been comprehensively revealed by a plethora of independent studies from all over the world.
NB the section from Cancer Research entitled
“ALCOHOL IS ONE OF THE MOST WELL ESTABLISHED CAUSES OF CANCER.” info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/alcohol/howdoweknow/index.htm
Through this link you will also be able to access the 31 seperate research papers proving a link between alcohol and cancer.
When oncologists are asked by their patients if it’s ok to drink wine/beer their primary focus is on contraindications involving alcohol - i.e. is alcohol going to interfere with the efficacy of the chemo or cause additional health problems to someone who has cancer or is in the midst of chemotherapy?
Alcohol doesn’t interfere with the working of cancer drugs (as it does with antibiotics for example) and so when they say “Yes you can have a drink” that is what many of them mean. They are saying that alcohol won’t stop your drugs from working.
Few oncologists are focused on the preventative elements of health care.
If I had a pill which could reduce risk of cancer by 10% I suspect many people would take it.
Conversely if there was another pill that could increase your risk by 10% - I doubt there would be any takers. Especially among people who’d already had cancer. Yet most people blithely drink alcohol as if there were no risk at all.
As Cathy said, deciding to continue to drink booze when you are fully aware of the risk is an informed choice and an entirely personal decision. But after all we have been through, people at least owe it to themselves to take the time to read and digest all the evidence before making up their minds.
Going out and having a good time really isn’t dependent on drinking alcohol. I have just as much fun socialising without booze. Being teetotal does not impact on my quality of life at all.
I personally find the dogged attachment to alcohol in British culture quite baffling. In years to come I suspect generations will be staggered by the booze obsession - in the way we now are with smoking.
The smoking habit was propped up by social acceptability. (My GP used to smoke in his surgery.) Alcohol is the same.
I remember shopping in the US and supermarkets would have whole aisles stocked floor to ceiling with cartons of cigarettes. The fags are now gone but have been replaced by aisles of cheap wine and beer.
Most people finally woke up to the health risks of cigarettes and it will eventually happen with booze but it looks as if it is going to take a very long time.
I agree with Cathy - so long as its an informed choice, its a personal decision. The problems come when people won’t accept consistent messages cos they don’t support your personal choices.
I will also continue to drink alcohol - currently opting for a spritzer rather than straight wine, but I do acknowledge the risk.
Hi - not sure if this is a comment directed at me or not - probably not but I do still take the view that it is for my Oncologist not Google to tell me if there is anything that I can do that will improve my chances of not having a recurrance - he is after all the specialist with over 30 years experience in the field of cancer treatment. I know nothing about cancer except what I have unfortunately had to learn over the past 7 months and so I take my cue from him. I was TT during chemo cause my mouth was so sore that I couldn’t take alcohol (or food for that matter !)
My onc hasn’t told me that alcohol increases my risks (and yes I have asked) and it’s not the case that I am so in need of a glass of wine that I ignore his professional view and make a personal choice to have a glass of wine occassionally - quite the opposite when I asked he said it’s fine go ahead - also the radiology department said the same thing - they said try to avoid spirits during radiation cause it is more drying but apart from that everything is ok to drink. In a heartbeat I would go TT if that is what it took to ensure I lived to be a disease free old lady !
I don’t know enough about the research to say anything about it - and I don’t know who commissioned or paid for it to see if there is an agenda (pro or con) for sure it doesn’t come without a cost ! I for one was not asked by the surgeon, specialist, oncologist or any of the nurses how much alcohol I drank or what my eating habits were before my diagnosis - my mother, bless her, also has breast cancer and she is tea total. Has anyone else been asked this sort of information ?
anyway for sure it is a personal choice and I wouldn’t like to think that this conversation caused anyone any stress about what they do and don’t drink so I’ll stop here.
Wishing you all a speedy recovery - with or without alcohol. xx
I’ll continue to have the odd glass of wine at weekends (or larger and lime) when I feel like it, even though I’m pretty sure in my case alcohol was the cause. An occasional glass I hope won’t do any harm unlike downing a bottle of Gallo Zinfandel of an evening which I confess I used to do out of boredom, probably.
I can’t possibly comment on the links or otherwise between alcohol & cancer as I don’t know enough about it, but I agree RECS, that nobody treating me ever asked me did I drink or not. In fact one of the first things my haemotology nurse told me was it’s fine to have a drink if you feel like it & I hadn’t even asked.
I do think statistics can be used to ‘prove’ lots of things. Remember Edwina Currie & the chickens ? Or was it eggs ? I forget. Every now & then they tell us all these scary things, but they never seem to come to pass. I’m not aware for example of a huge epidemic of CJD, yet a few years ago you could be forgiven for thinking you’d get it if you had a burger.
With regard to your onc RECS perhaps you should print out the 31 primary research papers on alcohol and cancer - the ones which are recognised by the World Health Organisation - so he can do some homework.
The trouble with older medics who have been at it for donkeys years is that some don’t keep abreast of current research.
The fact that risk is not absolute has been pointed out many times already in this thread but I will give it one final shot …
Not all cigarette smokers get cancer but smoking can cause cancer. Not all drinkers of alcohol get cancer but alcohol can cause cancer. Drinking alcohol does not mean you will definitely get cancer but it increases your risk.
Not drinking alcohol does not mean you definitely won’t get cancer but it reduces your risk.
The point about personal choice has been reiterated repeatedly.
If people have been “stressed” by this discussion well that is just too bad. They are grown ups and can completely ignore the topic and not read it. Or they can take the time to read around the subject and educate themselves and make up their own minds.
If there are subjects which some people feel are out of bounds - eventhough they pertain directly to this disease - then we really aren’t going to make much progress with anything are we?
Just because we don’t like what we hear or are resistant to it doesn’t make it wrong.
Msmolly the only thing that is clear is that we are all entitled to our opinion - as for my old duffer of an oncologist I pay him £500 a day to be right so I hope to God he is.
