Alcohol Causes Breast Cancer (But Most Women Don’t Know That)
Drinking alcohol is normalized in US society, masking its serious health risks
By Monica Swahn, Dean of the Wellstar College of Health and Human Services, Kennesaw State University and Ritu Aneja, Professor of Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences, Associate Dean of Research and Innovation in the School of Health Professions, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Did you know that casual drinks with friends or having a “wine mom” moment to unwind could actually be nudging up your risk for breast cancer? It sounds like a buzzkill. But it’s a truth that many might not know: Alcohol actually causes breast cancer.
The World Health Organization and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism lay it out pretty clearly: Compared to those who don’t drink, just one drink a day can bump up your breast cancer risk by 5% to 9%.
As alcohol and cancer researchers, we wanted to learn more about what women actually know about the connection between alcohol and breast cancer, especially since alcohol use has been increasing among women.
Explaining the knowledge gap
For our recently published research, we asked more than 5,000 women ages 18 and older across…
