How much alcohol it takes to increase your risk of dying of 9 cancers: study

A bottle a day probably won’t keep the doctor at bay.Americans are drinking less than ever, with just 54% of US adults saying they consume alcohol, according to recent Gallup polling, marking a record low for the second year in a row.But for those who do indulge, a new study has a sobering warning: It may take far less booze than you’d think to raise your odds of dying from nine different types of cancer.Researchers analyzed more than three decades of US data from the Global Burden of Disease Study, which tracks the toll of hundreds of risk factors, diseases and conditions across more than 200 countries and territories.They found that alcohol-attributable cancer deaths in the US more than doubled between 1990 and 2023, soaring from 11,361 to 23,126 a year.Alarmingly, just one drink a day appeared to be enough to increase the risk of becoming one of those statistics.The federal government considers one standard drink to be 12 fluid ounces of regular beer, 5 fluid ounces of table wine or 1.5 fluid ounces of distilled spirits such as gin, rum, tequila, vodka or whiskey.That daily drink could spell trouble for more than one part of the body.Researchers linked alcohol to deaths from breast, prostate, colon, rectal, stomach, pancreatic and liver cancers, as well as cancers of the head and neck.The analysis found that older adults bore the brunt of alcohol-attributable cancer deaths over the 33-year period, with people 55 and older facing higher rates than those ages 20 to 54.

Overall, men fared worse than women.The study also showed that alcohol-related deaths from colorectal and esophageal cancers were climbing faster than cancer deaths as a whole.Heavy drinking is particularly dangerous when it comes to esophageal cancer, with more than three drinks a day linked to at least four times the risk seen in non-drinkers.Previous research has also tied heavier drinking in early adulthood and two or more drinks a day in middle age to a higher risk of developing colorectal ...