Homer Simpson once quipped “Beer. Is there anything it can’t do?” It turns out that beer and all its alcohol-spiked pals can do a lot, including killing us all from the inside, which is ironically a good reason to drink.
In recent research reviewed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology found that even moderate alcohol use is a “contributing factor” to increased cancer risks.
Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the study warns of the links between “alcohol abuse” and certain types of cancer, including oropharyngeal and larynx cancer, esophageal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, breast cancer, and colon cancer. Not that there’s a “good” cancer, but those are like the worst cancers.
“In fact, alcohol drinking is an established risk factor for several malignancies,” the researchers found. “In the United States, it has been estimated that 3.5% of all cancer deaths are attributable to drinking alcohol.”
Wait. Only 3.5%? Those seem like pretty low odds considering 96.5% of everything else leads to cancer.
This isn’t the best news to get just days away from the biggest drinking night of the year so with 2018 on the horizon let’s try to ignore all the stuff about booze probably rotting your brain and let’s keep in mind all the great things drinking can do. Stuff like improve our ability to speak another language, turn entire cities into a frat party and survive while locked in a cooler overnight.
Happy New Year.
[via Market Watch]
