The research revealed that for men, drinking one bottle of wine per week had an equal cancer risk of 5 cigarettes per week.
The research was published in the BMC Public Health medical journal, and hypothesised that if 1000 non-smoking women drank one bottle of wine per week across their lifetime, around 14 women would develop cancer as a result. For men, the results would be 14 developing cancer.
An author of the study, Dr Theresa Hydes writes that “We must first be absolutely clear that this study is not saying that drinking alcohol in moderation is in any way equivalent to smoking.”
She goes on to explain that the findings are related to lifetime cancer risk due to drinking one bottle per week, across the population.
Rather, the study seeks to explain simply that drinking can also increase your risk of developing cancer at some stage during your lifetime.
Sophia Lowes, from Cancer Research UK, told SkyNews that "Research is clear - the less a person drinks, the lower the risk of cancer. Small changes like having more alcohol-free days can make a big difference to how much you drink.”
The Cancer Council Australia reports that together, smoking and alcohol have a ‘synergistic effect’ on upper gastrointestinal and aero-digestive cancer risk, meaning the combined effects exceed the risk from either alone.
There you have it folks, drink less, smoke less, and reduce your cancer risk.
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