U. S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently proposed that an increased risk of cancer be added to the list of health issues related to alcohol and included on warning labels.
The American Medical Association and the World Health Organization have long spoken about the link between various forms of cancer and alcohol. According to USA Today, the AMA and WHO are finally being heard. Younger drinkers are increasingly turning to “mocktails” and other non-alcoholic beverages when they step out for a night on the town or stay at home for a quiet evening.
Al Jazeera’s Areesha Lodhi tells readers that the Surgeon General links alcohol to “at least seven cancers, including breast, colon, liver, mouth, throat, esophageal, and laryngeal cancers” and it does it through various means:
- DNA damage: Alcohol metabolizes into acetaldehyde, a toxic compound that damages DNA, the molecules that guide how humans grow and function, and prevents cells from repairing themselves.
- Hormonal disruption: Alcohol disrupts hormone levels, particularly estrogen, increasing breast cancer risk.
- Absorption of carcinogens: Alcohol heightens the body’s absorption of other carcinogens, such as those found in tobacco.
MSNBC recently featured an article by Dr. Jalal Baig, an oncologist who says the connection between cancer and alcohol has been recognized for decades. “With more and more data showing that no level of drinking (light or heavy) is fully safe from cancer,” Baig writes, “we should hasten efforts to raise awareness and to enact public policy measures that can curb alcohol consumption and save lives.”
That awareness has been slow to develop in the United States. The rest of the world has been much faster in developing ways to curb alcohol use and attendant ailments. Al Jazeera notes the WHO’s suggestions on how to accomplish this: “raising taxes, limiting marketing, and reducing physical availability, such as restricting the number of sellers and their operating hours.” This works. “Nordic countries and Thailand have successfully reduced alcohol consumption by increasing taxes and restricting marketing.”
Will such measures in conjunction with increasing consciousness of alcohol’s destructiveness persuade drinkers to leave the vodka out of an orange-juice-and-vodka? If warning labels are altered, as the Surgeon General is urging, and if the truth about booze reaches enough ears…who knows?
It’ll be an uphill fight in many ways. It’s no surprise to learn from Isabella Cueto at Stat that:
The alcohol industry and its trade groups donate to both
parties, and to races up and down the ballot. Many members
of Congress also represent districts and states with alcohol
producers, distributors, and retailers like bars and restaurants.
The alcohol lobby is a regular presence in Washington, and
has the financial backing of a giant industry to push favorable
policies and quash unfriendly proposals.
Despite big business’s preference for profit over well-being, more and more drinkers are climbing onto the water wagon or seriously reducing their alcohol intake. It’s nice to remember what you did last night. Nice to wake up without the pounding head and heaving stomach. Nice to save some money, too – like everything else, the cost of booze has gone through the roof.
Give me one of those Watermelon Cucumber Slushys…in a dirty glass. And I’ll drink to that.
Check out Andrew Huberm‘s eye opening What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain & Health
