As someone who enjoys wine, I have asked my oncologist twice now, about the link between BC and alcohol (he will really think I am a lush!!). He categorically said that the two questions he gets asked about most is alcohol and dairy regarding breast cancer risks and says that nothing has been really proven. I raise my glass to that!!
I didn’t drink at all, didn’t stop me getting BC. I do now!! what the heck.
The Daily Mail drives me bonkers with its sensationalising of every bit of breast cancer resaerch. It does it both ways…and rarely explains the evidence it is reporting on (this week abut a risk factor link…last week about a new wonder drug and ‘cure’ which if you unpick was just about very early trials on existing drugs).
However…there is sufficient research to suggest that alcohol consupmtion does increase breast cancer risk…which is not the same as saying it ‘causes’ all breast cancer. There is not the same evidence for dairy at all.
Lots of people who didn’t drink get breast cancer like a fair number who don’t smoke get lung cancer, but that is not to say the risk factor isn’t there and real. Breakthrough Breast Cancer has good information on its site about understanding risk in general and about drink risk in particular. I used to drink very heavily and accept without guilt that this may (or may not) be one contributory factor towards my own breast cancer…just as my short menstrual cycle and no children/ no breastfeeding history may be, I still drink (shutting the stable door late no good!). I think the research on alcohol is well grounded but also know that the causes of breast cancer are likely to be a complex combination of various factors. (which don’t include stress, deodorants, or knocks on the breast.)
Jane
Interested to read the alchol issue coming up yet again.
I always ‘kicked’ against the alchol having something to do with me getting BC but recently i have been having second thoughts.
After my mum died in 2004 i resorted to drinking wine every evening to get me through it all. Before this i had been almost tea total except for the occasional lager, except for during teen yrs.
DX Oct 2005. My Bc nurse and Surgeon and Onc have said that i have not brought BC on myself which i have often thought i have done because of drinking too much.
However recently i have drank far less alchol and my hot flushes have decreased so much and i feel different. From that i think alchol affects me more than i thought and am again coming to the conclusion we are better off with out it.
Rx
cheers everyone!
The last thing anyone with cancer needs is to be repeatedly told that they are, effectively, repsonsible for their own illness. There are many people who follow all of the advice about reducing risk and still get cancer- I was one of them. However there are factors that many of us can’t do anything about- like growing up in a heavily industrialised area and both of my parents smoking. And the guidance is about reducing risk, not removing it, which the media fails to highlight. As for the Daily Mail- let’s not go there.
Geraldine
Since my dx in June I have tormented myself as to the reasons why I got BC. No family history, breast fed 3 children, but I have enjoyed a glass or two of red wine for a few years and even more so since living in France. I thought red wine was meant to be good for the heart and blood system and people with heart problems are encouraged to have a glass or two, particularly Chilean wine (something about the grapes perhaps?).
At the end of the day, everyday life is a risk and its no good denying ourselves a little of what we enjoy. We could leave the house tomorrow and be knocked down by a bus.
So, I will endeavour to cut down on alchohol consumption, in fact these days with chemo and side effects and medication etc. I hardly touch it, but I do miss a drink.
I only have the occasional drink at weddings etc, have never smoked and not over weight, have always eaten a reasonable diet. I come from a big family ( lots of females ) who all smoke and like to drink moderately,most have suffered side effects from smoking while i have always been the healthy one, yet i am the one who has breast cancer ??? so how does the people who do the research work this out ???
Mary
The trouble is we keep getting contradictory information. This is a more recent article from the Telegraph, saying something completely different from the Mail:
telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2262150/Red-wine-could-help-prevent-breast-cancer.html
I know which I prefer to believe, but how can we really know?
The problem with all the research mentioned is that they are usually longitutidnal studies, conducted over many years, with many different people, with many different lifestyles. It may be possible to identify certain risk factors involved with the development of certain diseases, but impossible to say that they definitely are the cause. It is like Sir Richard Doll’s studies with smoking linked to lung cancer. We all now accept that if you smoke, you are more at risk of lung cancer than a non smoker, but doesnt mean you will definitely get lung cancer if you smoke, or that you definitely wont if you dont smoke. I guess smoking is a poor example as there is nothing beneficial about smoking, but alcohol in very small amounts can be beneficial. However, in large amounts it is harmful, not just for breast cancer but for many other diseases. Personally, I am willing to take the risk of drinking wine at the weekends even though it may increase my risk of breast cancer more. I am also willing to travel to work in a car, fly, take the train, walk by myself after dark etc etc.
My OH always says that just living from day to day can kill you as there is risk in everything now. I am more careful than I was - we were in London for 20 years and I had a big after work social life. I also used to work in a gallery where it was the norm for staff to crack open a bottle after the visitors had left and we were closing up.
I didn’t really drink at all when I was on chemo, on FEC I used to have a couple of glasses during every 3 week cycle. I had nothing on rads and nothing on Taxotere as I was too ill. I now limit any wine to either a Friday or Saturday evening or when we are out for a nice meal.
I also smoked an average of 5 Silk Cut a day, but had given up before my BC diagnosis. Must admit though, I did have a few week moments when I was ill and I did buy the odd packet from time to time. I sometimes see myself as very fortunate. When I worked in London I lived in the shadow of some of the worst IRA bombings (worked in the City when they bombed the Baltic Exchange and Bishopsgate) and we had just got out of London a year before the tube bombings - I could have been caught up in any of those events. My OH would have been involved in the Paddington train crash, but the appointment he was due to go to was cancelled the afternoon before. The only way to avoid things would be to live like a hermit in a sealed bubble if you ask me.
A big problem for me is people being judgmental - my sister is in Saudi and doesn’t drink much when she is here. When she is here she makes a point about how we don’t really drink any more and I just know she thinks thinks this is how I got BC because she is a sanctimonious bitch at times. When I was at my sickest last year after being in hospital for a week in isolation she said to my OH “you pair used to drink far too much”. He could have quite happily slapped her given the year we had just been through.
well my friend Dx 2 wks ago total tea total anti drink person, like my mum and best friend were.
Need I say more???
Rx
I wouldn’t give credence to anything the Daily Mail printed! It’s a vile rag.
Hi,
Big confession time girls…
I’m a recovering alcoholic. I gave up booze over 6 years ago…dx with breast cancer 2 and a half years ago and have always thought there was a connection.
Could be my fault after all.
Sheana x
Hi Sheana
It is very brave of you to admit to this on a forum and for that I have the strongest admiration for you. However, I really, really don’t feel that you should blame yourself for having breast cancer. There are many thousands of women who have BC who have never drunk to excess and many alcoholics who never have had BC. My oncologist is adamant there is a weak connection between BC and alcohol and it is more likely that those who drink heavily, also have an unhealthy lifestyle, which may in turn have some effect on immunity and cancer prevention. I am not condoning heavy drinking and I think you must have a will of iron to have quit drinking, but the last thing you need is to think you have caused this.
Cathy
x
Hi Cathy,
Thanks for those kind words. I must admit that life feels tough sometimes…I hit thebottle big time towards the end of my very unhappy marriage but gave up when I left him and have never drunk again. I got my life back on track and was devastated when I developed breast cancer 4 years later…I just feel doomed sometimes to have an unhappy, tragic life.
Sheana x
Hi Sheana
To be able to pick yourself up from alcoholism and start off again in life must be one of the hardest things to do. My father was an alcoholic so I know what life with one is like and he died of a stroke aged 49, mostly down to drinking, smoking and other poor lifestyle habits. I know what you mean about life being tragic sometimes. My son had cancer as a baby (is OK now) my mother and father died off fairly young in life, then I get BC. I look at others who seem to have lived a charmed life with no major catastrophes etc and it does make you wonder why? Yet, I still feel somehow I have gained a lot of strength from all these crises or whatever you want to call them and have been able to prioritise in life what matters and what doesn’t. Those who seemed to have sailed through life are affected so badly by the most trivial of problems that I wouldnt give a second thought to now and I wonder what will happen if and when something major hits them. My mother in law, who has never been ill or had any problems as such, goes to pieces when her washing machine breaks down!! God help her if she ever faces a big challenge!!! As for you being doomed - I think you have already shown a great strength of character and have faced things in life that would have destroyed many others. Take some happiness from that!!
Hi cathy,
Thanks again!
I agree totally with you that what you go through in life builds your personality and like you, I deal with things easily that some people fall to pieces at. I hope that doesn’t sound conceited.
Dealing with alcoholism is a daily battle and I will admit that when I ws dx, the temptation crossed my mind to get plastered. But I didn’t and thank god for that because it wouldn’t have solved a thing. I had to be strong because I had sole responsibility for my two sons who were 14 and 11 at the time.
I’m sorry that your life has been tough too, with your share of tragedies…my dad died after my first chemo and I had to organise his funeral with my brother because my mum couldn’t cope. Picking out his coffin was so difficult with many thoughts racing through my head…wondering how long it would be until my brother would be choosing mine. But I got through it because I had to, like you have and gained strength as well.
I must admit though Cathy, I would quite like a bit of luck to come my way!!! I’m sure you and I both deserve it!
Sheana x
Just waded through this thread. interesting.
had wine with my supper and whilst preparing it. Have done the beating myself up over alcohol causing bc, but I have it and that is that. My only sister died in July due to Bowel cancer aged only 42. We shared many a bottle of wine or champers. I know neither of us would wanted it ant different we just enjoyed ourselves.
We should all be more worried about what is in our food. From oestrogen fed chicken and other meats to what preservatives and carcinogens (E numbers ) in most food sources. what chemicals are sprayed on fruit and veg to keep them ‘FRESH’ whilst getting transported from one side of the globe to another. the media just likes us all to feel guilty about everything.
since my lovely sister died I have tried to think differently about life. I am on femara now for the next 4 years, tamoxifen made me feel awful . Herceptin till xmas. When i reach the five years and the meds stop…will it all come back? Who knows, so what is the bloody point in spending the time punishing and worrying myself .I have put on nearly 4 stone since dx in January 2007. having had my ovaries removed in January this year I am doing the spayed lab thing…packing on the weight like no tomorrow and where the sweet tooth has appeared from heaven knows.
I now have a 42g size ‘breast form’ and a 42d on other side…but a flat stomach as had TRAM recon immediately after mastectomy.
But at the end of the day I am still here…my sister doesn t have that luxury… and I know she would say to me…so what your bigger than you were and you have a funny boob, but your still alive and that’s what matters.
And that is what matters…we have just one life .ENJOY IT!!!
And Sheana life does suck …I have had a failed business, bankruptcy, house repossessed, court hearing,4 house moves, sister diagnosed with bowel cancer resulting in her having miscarriage at 23 weeks and all in 5 years. But crappy things seem to happen to those who CAN cope. I thought about writing a book… but think people would not believe it was true!!!
Good luck to us all…when it comes down to it i think it is just luck.
becks
xxxx
There is no “rhyme nor reason” with this sh&*%y thing call cancer. Why do some people live to 80 or 90 and smoke 40 a day and drink excess alcohol (and just “die of old age”/whatever), and then there are kids out there dying aged under 5 who get cancer and die? Or us folk in the middle who get breast cancer (and some of us make it).
The person who finds out what causes cancer will be on their way to a Nobel prize. But with the drugs industry running into billions of dollars a year turnover, is it in anyone’s interest to actually find a cure? I am sure that there are “natural” cures out there, but because they can’t be patented, who is interested?