Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Alcohol and Breast Cancer

Marilyn Kwan of Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, CA found that women who were moderate to heavy drinkers had a higher incidence of breast cancer. Patients who already had breast cancer and continued to drink 3-4 times a week had a 1.3 times higher recurrence rate. Drinking a half a glass of wine or one beer daily appears to be the upper safe limit for cancer and also has some protective effect for coronary artery disease. It is a fine line between protection and increased risk.

See Family Practice News (click here), January, 2010, p. 46.

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