Does drinking alcohol lead to higher cancer risk?

[Researcher Curtis Ellison once publicly stated that a] glass a day can make for a healthier heart and a longer life.

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[However, public health professor Tim Naimi held] the less attractive position: Drinking is distinctly unhealthy. And not in the typical ways you might associate with alcoholism, but in the sense of increased cancer risk—even for moderate drinkers.

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“Lots of us drink and we’d really like to believe drinking is good for us,” says Naimi. “But the research around that has really fallen apart in the last couple years.”

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Ellison doesn’t deny that there is a link between alcohol and cancer—he just thinks it’s only relevant for heavy drinkers.

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“It all comes down to perception of risk and how you want to live your life,” says [Kenneth] Portier. Someone who is at a higher risk for heart disease than cancer, for example, may feel more inclined to have a glass of red wine each night than someone who has a strong family history of breast cancer.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: The Muddled Link Between Booze And Cancer