It has sometimes been recommended for women to drink a serving of alcohol today for their health. Specifically, one drink per day may help with a woman’s chances of preventing heart disease and may even help reduce the risk of diabetes.
However, that one drink, be it a can of beer or glass of wine, may have a potential negative health effect. Not just moderate use, but even slight use of alcohol, can increase a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer.
Just One Drink?
One serving of alcohol is typically given as one twelve-ounce portion of beer, five ounces or wine, or one shot (1.5 ounces) of hard liquor. Smaller servings than this, such as eight ounces of beer or one ounce of hard liquor, per day, were enough to cause an increase in the risk of women developing breast cancer.
Now this increase was small. The risk increased by 5%, and since this refers to relative risk rather than absolute risk, it does not mean that 5% of all women who have any alcohol will develop breast cancer when compared with women who do not. It means that when you look at teetotaler women with breast cancer, that number is 5% higher in women who drink.
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