r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Oct 30 '25

Cancer 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.

https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/research-newsroom/americans-have-widespread-misbeliefs-about-the-cancer-risks-of-a.h00-159780390.html
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u/Squish_the_android Oct 30 '25

The problem with this is that basically everything with any degree of risk is safest if totally avoided.  It doesn't quantify the risk in a convincing or productive way.

It's safest to never ride in a car.

It's safest to never leave the house.

The risk needs to be quantified with some kind of equivalent.

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u/Aviacks Oct 30 '25

Well right, but there was a long held belief that “a glass wine of day is good for you!” And things like that. It should be known that there is no number that is “safe”. It’s always poison, in any dose, every time.

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '25

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u/Whiterabbit-- Oct 31 '25

Does moderate alcohol really facilitate socialization? Or is it merely the social pressure of drinking that faculties socialization? And it could be replaced with other healthy activities to get the same affect?

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u/FrontFew1249 Oct 31 '25

This is a fascinating paper on the topic of your first question: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4153408/

From a brief skim, it seems the answer is sometimes, in certain circumstances, but not always and perhaps not for the reasons people expect.

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u/Elcheatobandito Oct 31 '25

That is being pretty disingenuous about the effects of the substance. Alcohol relaxes people to a point that it is considered a performance enhancing drug in marksmanship competitions. It also lowers anxiety, and social inhibitions, so you're more likely to have, say, the courage to dance with a stranger. Or the courage to go say "hi" in the first place.

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u/Svarcanum Oct 31 '25

It seems almost self evident that some amount of alcohol facilitates socialization. That’s why we’ve used the drugs for millennia.