Many studies have shown that alcohol consumed in moderate amounts prevents diseases. One glass of red wine a day especially is good for the heart as it prevents heart disease. That’s why health care experts have recommended people to consume alcohol, but not to abuse  it.

It seems that this recommendation is totally wrong according to the findings of a new study published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The study, conducted by Naomi Allen, from the cancer epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, found that moderate drinking accounts for 13 percent of breast, liver, rectum and upper respiratory/digestive tract cancers among women. Moreover, even low alcohol intake can raise a woman’s risk of developing cancer of the liver and rectum. In Smokers, cancers of the mouth and throat were also linked to high alcohol consumption.

“Because a high proportion of women drink low amounts of alcohol regularly and because most of the increased risk is for breast cancer, the risk among women associated with drinking alcohol is of particular importance,” said Allen.

The findings were based on data collected by the Million Women Study, which involved information from 1.28 million women ages 50 to 64. Over more than seven years of follow up, 68,775 women developed cancer. Twenty-four percent of the women reported no alcohol consumption.
 
Higher quantities of alcohol were related to an increased risk for cancers of the mouth and throat, esophagus, larynx, rectum, liver and breast, the researchers found. On the other hand, drinking was associated with decreased risks of certain cancers, including thyroid cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and renal cell carcinoma (the main type of kidney cancer).
 
‘The risk of cancer was similar in women who drank wine exclusively and in women who drank a mixture of alcoholic drinks. This suggests that alcohol, rather than other substances contained in specific alcoholic beverages, is the most important factor in determining cancer risk,” Allen said.