Time for me to stop drinking alcohol

I very rarely drink alcohol anyway, so it’s not a big deal for me to stop entirely. Why would I want to do this? Drinking alcohol causes cancer:

The American Society of Clinical Oncology, which represents many of the nation’s top cancer doctors, is calling attention to the ties between alcohol and cancer. In a statement published Tuesday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the group cites evidence that even light drinking can slightly raise a woman’s risk of breast cancer and increase a common type of esophageal cancer.

Heavy drinkers face much higher risks of mouth and throat cancer, cancer of the voice box, liver cancer and, to a lesser extent, colorectal cancers, the group cautions.

“The message is not, ‘Don’t drink.’ It’s, ‘If you want to reduce your cancer risk, drink less. And if you don’t drink, don’t start,’” said Dr. Noelle LoConte, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the lead author of the ASCO statement. “It’s different than tobacco where we say, ‘Never smoke. Don’t start.’ This is a little more subtle.”

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8 thoughts on “Time for me to stop drinking alcohol

  1. Bull. These are the same people who said dietary fat causes heart disease when all along it’s been high carb diets.

    • Well, if the American Society of Clinical Oncology was making predictions about fat and heart disease that’s your problem right there.

      😉

  2. Bah. I’ll just do this the George Carlin way: I’ll drink wine and tequila, get two cancers and they can fight each other. If one starts getting the upper hand I’ll start on scotch to bring in a third cancer.

    Then I’ll start a Las Vegas betting pool to bet on which one gets the credit for doing me in, verified by a majority of medical examiners. My posthumous share of the pot will go toward the rental of a brass cannon, which I hope, Joe, you will allow my ashes to be fired out of to open the after-lunch session of a Boomershoot.

  3. The human body is a very complex system. Clinical oncologists will tell us that any alcohol increases risk for some cancers. Cardiologists will tell us that red wine, in moderation, reduces risk of heart disease. Most anyone will recognize that a cold beer on a hot day reduces stress. It’s a broad field of conflicting benefits.

  4. Wait thirty days and this ponderous pontification will be trashed by a competing “study”, which will itself be denied by another, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

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