In a study released on Friday, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stated that warning labels about the cancer risk should be placed on alcoholic beverages.
According to the analysis, drinking alcohol is directly linked to at least seven different types of cancer, including those of the mouth, liver, colon, and breast. Alcohol use is thought to be a contributing factor in 16.4% of all instances of breast cancer.
According to the report, there are roughly 20,000 alcohol-related cancer deaths and 100,000 alcohol-related cancer diagnoses in the United States annually. After obesity and tobacco, alcohol is the third most common cause of cancer in the United States.
Despite the fact that studies have linked alcohol to cancer, most Americans are not aware of this risk, according to a statement from Murthy.
The following health warning label is probably recognizable to those who do consume alcohol:
GOVERNMENT WARNING: (1) Due to the possibility of birth abnormalities, the Surgeon General advises women not to consume alcohol while pregnant. (2) Drinking alcohol can lead to health issues and makes it harder to handle machines or drive a car.
Customers have long been aware of the possible dangers of alcohol usage thanks to the existing warning. Dr. Amanda Berger, senior vice president of Science and Research at the Distilled Spirits Council, a trade association that represents businesses that produce alcoholic beverages, stated in a statement that many lifestyle choices have potential dangers.
The association does not advise anyone to drink in order to reap the health benefits, she continued.
Can damage from alcohol be reversed?
For those participating in Dry January or making plans to reduce or stop drinking, the new report might serve as an additional motivator. Some of the negative effects of alcohol can be reversed by the body, according to specialists.
According to Dr. Wei Zheng, director of the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, some harm can be undone, while others may be irreversible. Reducing alcohol consumption will undoubtedly lower future hazards.
In an interview, Murthy stated that there is no magic threshold for the general public’s safe alcohol intake. We do know that drinking less alcohol lowers the risk of developing cancer.
The warning was issued just weeks after another significant study revealed that moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a lower risk of death when compared to not drinking at all. However, researchers also discovered that it increased the chance of breast cancer.
In order to examine the relationship between moderate drinking and various outcomes, such as death from any cause, death from heart disease, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer, weight changes, and Alzheimer’s disease, a committee from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine conducted the report, which was commissioned by Congress and examined research conducted up until 2010.
According to Dr. Jamie Koprivnikar, an oncologist at Hackensack University Medical Center’s Hackensack Meridian John Theurer Cancer Center in New Jersey, women are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of alcohol because of the way they consume and metabolize it. We are aware that their possible toxicities are probably smaller than those of men.
Additionally, a 2023 study discovered that women’s alcohol-related mortality rates had sharply increased recently.
According to the paper, alcohol can cause cancer in a number of ways, such as by changing hormone levels and causing damage to DNA.
The surgeon general’s report suggests reevaluating the alcohol consumption guidelines to take cancer risk into consideration in addition to new warning labels.According to current dietary standards, alcohol consumption should be moderated, with one drink for women and two for men per day.
“We actually see increased cancer risk even within the current guideline limits of one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men,” Murthy added.
The notion of labeling alcoholic beverages with cancer warnings was praised by outside experts.
Dr. Bruce Scott, president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement that too many people are still ignorant of the dangers of alcohol despite decades of strong proof of this connection. The report will raise awareness, promote health, and save lives when combined with a movement to update the Surgeon General’s health warning label on alcoholic beverages.
Congress must approve any changes to the beverage labeling.
An update to federal dietary guidelines coming this year is expected to include new recommendations about how much alcohol people should drink.
A report on alcohol consumption conducted by a group within the Department of Health and Human Services is set to be published in the coming weeks. That report will help determine the 2025 dietary guidelines.
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