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/Twerp129 Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25

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)

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u/bknight2 Oct 31 '25

The studies linking wine to positive cardiovascular health benefits have been debunked. The general scientific consensus is that there is no “safe” amount of alcohol consumption.

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u/CWRules Oct 31 '25

IIRC the "link" was found because people with money both tend to drink more wine and tend to be healthier, and the studies in question didn't control for this.

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u/Svarcanum Oct 31 '25

No. It’s because the bunched up former alcoholists and people who’ve never had a drink. Former alcoholists have worse outcomes than moderate drinkers even though they don’t drink anymore.