“Alcohol Drives GI Cancers”

Europe is headed for a dramatic increase in rates of alcohol-related digestive cancers unless corrective efforts are implemented to revamp the cultural status quo in a region where the per capita daily drinking rates are the highest in the world. In 1988, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared alcohol to be a cancer-causing agent (carcinogen). Let’s examine the incriminating data against alcohol consumption, which says that no amount of alcohol is safe. Actually, that is the conclusion of the 2014 World Cancer Report (WCR), issued by the World Health Organization’s IARC, which says that the more alcohol that a person drinks, the higher the risk. The alcohol/cancer link has been strengthened by the finding of a dose/response relationship between alcohol consumption and certain cancers. Adults in all 28-member states of the European Union face a 21% increased risk for colorectal and esophageal cancer with an average alcohol consumption of two drinks per day. More than one-fifth of the European population aged 15 years and older are drinking heavily at least once a week. Moderate alcohol consumption was defined at one to four drinks per day. “Heavy” drinking, defined as consuming five or more drinks each day, is associated with a significantly increased risk for pancreatic, liver, and gastric cancer.

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