New study: A bottle of wine a week increases risk for cancer like 5-10 cigarettes

A new study suggests drinking a bottle of wine a week increases the risk of developing cancer.

It's the equivalent of smoking about 10 cigarettes a week for women and five for men, according to the study by BMC Public Health.

From the study:

One bottle of wine per week is associated with an increased absolute lifetime cancer risk for non-smokers of 1.0% (men) and 1.4% (women). The overall absolute increase in cancer risk for one bottle of wine per week equals that of five (men) or ten cigarettes per week (women). Gender differences result from levels of moderate drinking leading to a 0.8% absolute risk of breast cancer in female non-smokers.

Conclusions

One bottle of wine per week is associated with an increased absolute lifetime risk of alcohol-related cancers in women, driven by breast cancer, equivalent to the increased absolute cancer risk associated with ten cigarettes per week. These findings can help communicate that moderate levels of drinking are an important public health risk for women. The risks for men, equivalent to five cigarettes per week, are also of note.

This study was done by UK researchers, who consider a moderate level of drinking for men and women to be 14 units of alcohol. That's about six pints of beer, seven glasses of wine or 14 shots of liquor.

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