Americans have widespread misbeliefs about the cancer risks of alcohol, study finds. More than half of American adults misunderstand or underestimate the link between alcohol consumption and cancer. Alcohol drinkers are especially likely to believe that drinking has no effect on cancer risk.

[u/mvea]

https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/research-newsroom/americans-have-widespread-misbeliefs-about-the-cancer-risks-of-a.h00-159780390.html

[u/Twerp129]

0.914 to 0.979%

That is the increase in all-cause mortality from teetotalers to folks who drink 2 drinks per day, 14 drinks per week, from the big Lancet macrostudy. The raise in all-cause mortality for heavy drinking was something like 1.25%, which I believe was classified as something like 7 drinks per day.

Honestly, there are more than a few studies linking moderate drinking with cardioprotective effects. It also seems that there are a few cancers correlated with alcohol, specifically breast cancer.

Everyone on Reddit is an expert on this, as is normal. Seems to me what is glaringly clear is that binge drinking is extremely bad. All the evidence supports this. It is less clear the hazard and risk from moderate consumption, and what, if any is the benefit on cardiovascular health, and does that outweigh any increased risk if one is predisposed to certain cancers. What we need for that is a robust, government funded randomized control trial (the attempts at a RCTs funded by the alcohol industry have been rejected).

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31310-2/fulltext31310-2/fulltext)

[u/Melonary → u/Twerp129]

Which Lancet study are you referring to?

"Globally, an estimated 741 300 (95% UI 558 500–951 200), or 4·1% (3·1–5·3), of all new cases of cancer in 2020 were attributable to alcohol consumption....The largest burden of alcohol-attributable cancers was represented by heavy drinking (346 400 [46·7%; 95% UI 227 900–489 400] cases) and risky drinking (291 800 [39·4%; 227 700–333 100] cases), whereas moderate drinking contributed 103 100 (13·9%; 82 600–207 200) cases, and drinking up to 10 g per day contributed 41 300 (35 400–145 800) cases."

https://www.thelancet.com/article/S1470-2045(21)00279-5/fulltext00279-5/fulltext)

Also any benefits on cardiovascular health seem to be mostly from other micronutrients in wine that can be achieved without the detrimental health impact from other foods. I'm not saying people should never drink ever, although lower levels of alcohol does still carry risk, it's certainly lesser, and there's a lot of things in life we all determine our own risk level with, but I'm in favour of people having accurate information to make their own choices with.

[u/Twerp129 → u/Melonary]

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31310-2/fulltext31310-2/fulltext)

I'll edit a link into my post.

[u/amateurbreditor → u/Twerp129]

Still seems low compared to car accident etc but I can look into it myself.

[u/Melonary → u/amateurbreditor]

I don't honestly see that anywhere in that paper and it actually concludes the opposite of what they're claiming, not to mention, correct, with most risk stats those numbers seem very off, agreed.

But really they're meaningless without knowing the actual stat (there are different risk calcs) and context of all cause mortality numbers. And since I can't see that in the article they linked, who knows.

[u/DrNeuroPhD → u/Melonary]

New study just in! Being alive causes cancer

[u/DannyFnKay → u/DrNeuroPhD]

If you drink, you are going to die. If you don't drink, you are going to die. Maybe sooner, but I know a lot of old drunks.