I’ve been drinking for 7 years. Typicall I’ve only drank 3-4 drinks a year. If I stop drinking now, would that help decrease chances of cancer? If it does will it take a long time?
3-4 drinks per year won’t affect your cancer risk. Unless you’ve been drinking radium or something.
What if I’ve been drinking radium
That’s completely wrong. There’s no safe level of alcohol intake:
https://time.com/6248439/no-safe-amount-of-alcohol/
Edit: from the articles, in case you don’t have time to read them:
“We cannot talk about a so-called safe level of alcohol use. It doesn’t matter how much you drink—the risk to the drinker’s health starts from the first drop of any alcoholic beverage”
No safe level of sunlight by the same logic.
Oh come on, you don’t have to drink. Drinking is a choice and an easily avoidable health risk.
As a non-drinker who has seen the ravages of alcohol abuse in several loved ones, I completely understand the “no level is safe” guideline.
That said, 3-4 drinks per year is far below any measure of alcohol use that is seriously studied, where researchers look at drinking at the “amount per week” level. 3-4 drinks per year is essentially on the level of being a non-drinker.
Technically yes, but 3-4 drinks per year is such a small amount it’s going to make a negligible difference.
it might. but the difference would be absolutely marginal. also there’s a line between reasonably moderating your life not to die of cancer at 30 and worrying about everything and micromanaging every single aspect of your life to minimize your risk of cancer, which could ironically increase it. i know you didnt say anything like that, but many keep reading that x thing causes cancer and cut it out of their lives, then read that y causes it too and so on, just be reasonable
Note that moderate intake of alcohol can be beneficial to health.
More than 100 prospective studies show an inverse association between light to moderate drinking and risk of heart attack, ischemic (clot-caused) stroke, peripheral vascular disease, sudden cardiac death, and death from all cardiovascular causes.
But if you’re only considering cancer, then as some of the other answers suggested, cutting alcohol intake to zero could reduce the risk of getting cancer, although the reduction is likely very small that’s neglectable.
The better conclusion is “people who drink in moderation have a decreased risk of cancer”, which is different. Causation is hard to prove, especially when we can only ethically do observational studies. It’s likely that people who drink in moderation are more likely to make healthy choices in other areas of their life or have other factors that reduce risk.
