Even moderate drinking increases cancer risk

Even one drink per day can increase a woman's breast cancer risk. Photo: Getty

Treating yourself to just one drink per day can increase the risk of breast, colon, oral, liver and oesophageal cancers in women, researchers have found.

Men who drank as little as two drinks daily were also at a higher risk, though the risk was highest for men who had smoked (even after they had quit).

During the study published in the BMJ, researchers reviewed nearly 136,000 men and women who had enrolled in studies that followed their health behaviours for 30 years.

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The results revealed that, unsurprisingly, those who drank more had a higher risk of alcohol-related cancers. The biggest shock was in how little it took to increase cancer risk.

For women, one drink per day was linked to a 13 per cent higher risk of developing alcohol-related cancers, primarily breast cancer – the most common cancer in Australian women.

While it’s a sobering prospect, the bottom line is any drink of alcohol may increase your risk. The best thing you can do is mindful of how much you are drinking, and keep drinks to a minimum whenever you can.

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