Oh, come on now

I knew beer was going to kill my liver and destroy my brain cells and give me rectal tumors, but LUNG cancer? Damn it!


New Canadian study links lung cancer risk to beer

A new Canadian study found that beer drinkers are more at risk of developing lung cancer than their non-beer-drinking peers, while wine consumption has an opposite effect, scientists told AFP.

The study, which looked at two earlier large studies in the francophone province of Quebec, tried to discount the possible effects of smoking, which often goes hand-in-hand with beer consumption, to get clearer results.

Researchers at McGill University in Montreal examined a study in the 1980s which looked at 699 male lung cancer patients and another in the mid-1990s involving 1,094 afflicted men and women.

"The major concern with past associations between alcohol and lung cancer is whether it can be entirely or partially accounted for by cigarette smoking because people who drink are also people who smoke," said lead author Andrea Benedetti.

"We had very good smoking information on subjects, so we were able to filter out cigarette smoking," the McGill University biostatistician said.

The results showed "beer increased the risk of lung cancer," she said.

In contrast, wine seemed to have an opposite effect, which could be explained by the different components that go into beer and wine or different lifestyles of beer and wine drinkers, Benedetti said.

"The type of people who drink beer are usually different from the type of people who drink wine in terms of socio-economic status, education level, lifestyle and eating habits," she said. "Beer and chips versus wine and a salad."

Also, eating fruits and vegetables regularly seemed to counteract the carcinogenic effect of beer, Benedetti noted.

The findings were published this week in the May issue of "Cancer Causes and Control".

In the first Quebec study, after smoking was discounted, drinking up to six beers per week increased the risk of lung cancer by 20 percent, and by 50 percent for seven or more beers consumed in the same period.

In the second study, beer appeared harmful to men who did not eat fruit and vegetables regularly while men who drank wine saw their lung cancer risk drop by 40 percent, and women by 70 percent.

Previous research has found a strong link between alcohol and cancers of the mouth, pharynx, esophagus and larynx, and increased risk for stomach, colon, rectum, liver, breast and ovary cancers, but few explanations.

Some theories, based on animal studies, that suggest a component of ethanol is carcinogenic or that the oxidative effect of alcohol may damage DNA have not been proven.

 

Noooooooo


Pffffffffffft

 

No worries. There will probably be another story out later that contradicts this one.

 

coors lung light - 1/3 less calories, 1/3 less cancer risk

 

I smoked a pack Wednesday night and got tanked. There is a direct relationship between the two.