Zorba Paster: The more alcohol, the higher the risk for cancer

Alcoholic beverages — beer, spirits and wine — they all carry the same risk. More drinks, more risk.

Spirits are the most concentrated form of alcohol, with wine and beer following suit. Over the years, some people have said to me, and I quote, “I only drink beer — that’s not a problem, is it?”

The answer is another question: How much beer do you drink? The same is true for all types of alcohol: How much do you drink?

The U.S. surgeon general has come out with a recommendation that we put a label on all alcohol products concerning how alcohol causes cancer.

Let me delve into it in a bit, but first, a comment on binge drinking.

In 2022, the website 24/7 Wall St. ranked Wisconsin as the nation’s “drunkest” state based on self-reporting, with 25.2 percent of Wisconsin residents indicating alcohol consumption that constituted drinking excessively. In 2021, 41 of the 50 most heavily drinking counties in the U.S were in our state. That’s a problem by any standard.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines binge drinking as having four or more drinks at one time for women, and five or more drinks for men. That’s what someone might consume during a Packers game.

Heavy drinking, the CDC says, is eight or more drinks for women during a week, and 15 or more drinks for men.

So let’s get this out of the way. As a state, we drink too much — something we should take to heart, something we should change. By the way, Utah drinks the least (the Mormon Church, big in that state, frowns upon it), with West Virginia, Oklahoma, Georgia and Arkansas close behind.

Now, we know alcohol consumption is bad for driving. When I was a kid, it was a one-for-the-road idea, but we all know that’s bad.

Alcohol was still a factor in one 1 of 3 car accidents and 32 percent of the 41,000 automobile crash-related deaths we had last year. Way too many. We all may know — directly or indirectly — of people killed by drunk drivers. Amazing how that still happens, isn’t it?

We also know alcohol should not be consumed during pregnancy. We don’t know how much is safe, so we say no amount is safe. If I told my patients an occasional drink was OK, some would misinterpret that. As a doctor with 45 years’ experience, I know what I say is not always what people hear.

So now to the surgeon general’s recommendation. The top U.S. health official, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has called for requiring the labels on all beverages containing alcohol — we’re talking about spirits, beer and wine — to include a warning about the risk of alcohol causing cancer.

There is reliable scientific evidence that alcohol causes 100,000 cancers every year and 20,000 cancer deaths. Types of cancers involved include cancers of the breast, colon, rectum, esophagus, liver, mouth, throat and larynx. In fact, it’s thought that 16.4 percent of total breast cancer cases are attributable to alcohol consumption.

Your risk for developing cancer due to alcohol consumption is determined by a complex interaction of biological and environmental factors, plus elements such as whether or not you smoke, what you eat, how much you exercise, where you live and, of course, your genes.

So what should you do? There is one thing for sure — in all prevention, we know the greater the consumption, the greater the risk. If you smoke three packs a day of cigarettes, your risk is higher than if you smoke half a pack a day.

Do people who smoke just a few cigarettes a day develop lung cancer or have heart attacks and strokes from that little tobacco product? Yes, but their risk is less. It’s not zero, it’s just less.

My spin: I don’t know how much risk is created by having a bottle of beer, a glass of wine or a brandy old fashioned sweet. But what I do know is that it’s not zero.

Stay tuned — there undoubtedly will be more to follow on this. And stay well.