A word of caution for young gals! Stay away from the liquor cabinet if you want to keep breast cancer at bay!
According to a new study, teenage girls and young adult women who enjoy a daily tipple perk up their risk of the lethal disease.
The study found intake of fairly small amounts of alcohol early on in life has a potentially hazardous impact on the breast tissue of young women, which is at a vulnerable stage and still developing.
Women who consume a drink everyday between their first period and first full-term pregnancy are at a 13 percent higher risk of developing the malignancy. In fact the more they drink during this period the greater is the danger of the breast disease.
Study researcher Ying Liu, an instructor in the School of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine stated, “Parents should educate their daughters about the link between drinking and risk of breast cancer and breast diseases. That’s very important because this time period is very critical.”
Data analysis of 91, 005 US women
In a bid to assess whether alcohol intake during early adulthood ups the risk of breast cancer, the researchers conducted a study. They analyzed data from 91,005 women aged 25-44 who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study II. The subjects (with no history of cancer) were tracked over a span of 20 years.
For the purpose of the study, the participants were asked to recall their daily drinking patterns from the ages of 15 to 17, 18 to 22, and 23 to 30. In addition they were asked to furnish information pertaining to when they first started their periods and also if/when they gave birth to their first child.
The details collected helped the researchers roughly gauge how much alcohol the women had consumed per day over the various stages of their live.
Revelations of the study
The analysis revealed women who enjoyed a daily tipple between their first period and first pregnancy elevated their risk of breast cancer by a third. It was also noted that daily drinking ups the threat of proliferative benign breast disease (BBD) by 15 percent. BBD though not a malignancy does raise the risk of breast cancer.
“According to our research, the lesson is clear: If a female averages a drink per day between her first period and her first full-term pregnancy, she increases her risk of breast cancer by 13 percent,” said study researcher Graham Colditz, associate director for cancer prevention and control at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.
The study is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
