A bottle of wine per week increases the cancer risk to the same extent as ten cigarettes

“How many cigarettes stuck in your bottle of wine?”, Dr. Theresa Hydes from the University hospital in Southampton, asks in an article. And provides immediately the answer. The study of several researchers for the “BMC Public Health” magazine, compares the cancer risk of alcohol consumption and cigarette consumption. They come on a handy formula:

Women have the same risk of developing cancer if you drink a bottle of wine (ten units of alcohol) per week, as if you would smoke ten cigarettes in a week. In men, the same is true with only five cigarettes a week.

Accordingly, the risk of developing cancer in the illustrated consumption increases behavior by one percentage point, compared with people who smoke or drink.

“A comparison of the percentage increase in terms of the span of life of alcohol – and tobacco-induced cancer in connection with the Smoking of ten cigarettes (alcohol abstinence) or Drinking ten units of alcohol (in non-smokers) per week”

Alcohol cause, according to Hyde’s seven types of cancer; including for example, breast, liver, esophagus, oral and colon cancer. Accordingly, one of the seven women in your life to breast cancer – one of 13 am prone am prone in the UK due to alcohol. “You are not alone, if these Figures are news for you,” writes Hyde.

Alcohol and cigarette consumption in relation to cancer risk is only comparable to a limited extent

Important: These Figures are not scalable. The study does not claim that alcohol and cigarettes as a General principle, for a comparable risk of cancer. The Figures apply only to the case described, in which very little Smoking and only moderate drinking. A larger quantity of alcohol, the study showed, not able to cope with our body better than a larger amount of cigarettes – even if the physicians recommend both, of course.

Overall, adults should not exceed the total amount of 14 units of alcohol per week:

Professor John Britton of the University of Nottingham notes critical, he was sure, how useful this study is: “I’m not sure if many people decide, on the basis of a comparable Risk assessment for Smoking or Drinking, or neither, or both,” says Britton on the Website of the “Science Media Centre”. Only a few smokers would only smoke so few cigarettes per week and those who smoke so much, would not have been also smokers, a significantly increased risk of for example cardiovascular diseases, in comparison to or in comparison to people who would drink a bottle of wine per day.

Sources: BMC, BBC.com, Sciencemediacenter.org BMC Public Health