Thoughts on drinking alcohol

[jacqueline1102]

Hello all,

After much discussion with others and doing some of my own research, I was wondering what are your thoughts about whether drinking alcohol is connected to breast cancer. I know I sure enjoyed my wine on Friday and Saturday nights splitting a bottle with my husband and having friends over for nice meals. Drinking alcohol is a subject of much controversy and yet it is so much part of our culture. So, just wondering what are your thoughts and if you have read anything that discusses this or if your treatment team has discussed this with you? My oncologist has directly said that drinking alcohol, not getting enought exercise, and gaining weight are measures that we should take as a culture to prevent the disease but no one ever wants to talk about it because then people would say that we are blaming the breast cancer patient for their disease. I like my oncologist and will ask him challenging questions and after this much time treating me, he talks freely with me about hypothesis, research, and the big business of cancer treatment.

Or is it all just random? Like my primary care physician said, "I think it is just fate." I personally felt deflated when my PCP said that because what if we could prevent this horrible disease by having frank discussions and teaching the younger generations that your health care habits have more of a bearing on the dvelopment of cancer than just simple genetics such as the BRCA gene.

Then again, the wineries, restaurants, and beverage industry would go out of business and what would happen to our economy then? I know I am rambling a bit here but you all seem quite intelligent and objective so I am wondering what you are thinking.

Take care,

Jackie

Alcohol causes 20,000 cancer deaths in the U.S. annually - CBS News
www.cbsnews.com/.../alcohol-causes-20000-cancer-deaths-i...

[tricia keegan]

I recall during my chemo my Onc told me alcohol was fine but not the day before or day after chemo (not that I felt like drinking anyway!). I enjoy a drink at the weekends mostly and maybe once mid week with dinner and intend to continue to enjoy it, I think BC is a crap shoot as I've lost so many friends already that had a worse prognosis than I and I only quit smoking last year too! I think like everything, in moderation its fine!

[Catkins]

Hi ladies

Breast cancer has taken away my left boob and my hair and I am determined it is not going to take away anything else.

My onc and dietician have no objections to moderate red wine drinking. In the UK, the government advises no more than 14 units a week (a bottle of wine is about 9 units).

Mostly I stick to this but sometimes I don't. Occasionally I worry about this but mostly I don't.

Horses for courses I guess.

Cheers!

Catkins

[carlatte7]

My onco was good with a glass of red wine with dinner. At my fisrt appt with my surgeon, i said," i don't smoke, or drink to excess; I raise vegetables in our garden and can them, we raise our own beef, I breastfed 5 children a year apiece---andi still got breat cancer,". She said, "you're a girl and you have boobs." Too many things unknown for me to give up my Old Style at a Cubs game or glass of Brunello with dinner!

[lasarles]

I am inclined to believe that the foods we eat that are pumped or sprayed with unnatural garbage are more likely to cause cancer than the occasional glass of wine or alcoholic beverage.

[Lauriesh]

I don't drink alcohol because I had liver mets. I try to do everything i can to help support my liver, so I don't drink, try to eat healthy, careful about what OTC meds I take, etc.

Laurie

[Hopeful]

My hobby is wine collecting, and none of my doctors have advised me to give up wine drinking, all just recommend moderation.

Hopeful

[Jackie07]

Am J Public Health. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23409916#) 2013 Feb 14. [Epub ahead of print]
Alcohol-Attributable Cancer Deaths and Years of Potential Life Lost in the United States.

Nelson DE (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Nelson%20DE%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=23409916), Jarman DW (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Jarman%20DW%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=23409916), Rehm J (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Rehm%20J%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=23409916), Greenfield TK (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Greenfield%20TK%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=23409916), Rey G (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Rey%20G%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=23409916), Kerr WC (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Kerr%20WC%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=23409916), Miller P (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Miller%20P%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=23409916), Shield KD (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Shield%20KD%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=23409916), Ye Y (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Ye%20Y%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=23409916), Naimi TS (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Naimi%20TS%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=23409916).
Source

David E. Nelson and Paige Miller are with National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD. Dwayne W. Jarman is with Food and Drug Administration, Detroit, MI, and US Public Health Service, Rockville, MD. Jürgen Rehm and Kevin D. Shield are with Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario. Thomas K. Greenfield, William C. Kerr, and Yu Ye are with Alcohol Research Group, Public Health Institute, Emeryville, CA. Grégoire Rey is with INSERM, CépiDc, Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France. Timothy S. Naimi is with Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA.

Abstract

Objectives. Our goal was to provide current estimates of alcohol-attributable cancer mortality and years of potential life lost (YPLL) in the United States. Methods. We used 2 methods to calculate population-attributable fractions. We based relative risks on meta-analyses published since 2000, and adult alcohol consumption on data from the 2009 Alcohol Epidemiologic Data System, 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and 2009-2010 National Alcohol Survey. Results. Alcohol consumption resulted in an estimated 18 200 to 21 300 cancer deaths, or 3.2% to 3.7% of all US cancer deaths. The majority of alcohol-attributable female cancer deaths were from breast cancer (56% to 66%), whereas upper airway and esophageal cancer deaths were more common among men (53% to 71%). Alcohol-attributable cancers resulted in 17.0 to 19.1 YPLL for each death. Daily consumption of up to 20 grams of alcohol (≤ 1.5 drinks) accounted for 26% to 35% of alcohol-attributable cancer deaths. Conclusions. Alcohol remains a major contributor to cancer mortality and YPLL. Higher consumption increases risk but there is no safe threshold for alcohol and cancer risk. Reducing alcohol consumption is an important and underemphasized cancer prevention strategy. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print February 14, 2013: e1-e8. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2012.301199).

[BonnieR]

I am a recovering alcoholic Have not had a drink in 27 years. But i was on HRT
I think cancer is a crap shoot. One of my docs said. "It's the hand you were dealt"
Keep the faith

[NanaJoni]

I think you are right, Bonnie - and I've used those exact words many times over the last 3 years. As for this study - did they factor in how many people who drink alcohol also smoke, or have jobs that put them at high risk or genetic predisposition? Just doesn't seem definitive to me. Most Saturday evenings my husband and I enjoy a glass of wine and often when we go out to dinner. I don't think it's any more risky than getting in my car and driving to the grocery.

['lizbeth]

I drank beaucoup wine before cancer, and lot's of rum & cokes. I suspect it was part of a jet set lifestyle that packed on the pounds and created a healthy environment for the cancer to grow.

I am on the wagon again - not because of cancer prevention, but to get my blood pressure low enough to avoid medication. Coffee will be on the chopping block next I suppose . . . sigh.

[jaykay]

It is a crapshoot. I was on HRT because of early menopause and smoked for almost 40 years. Have been tobacco free for almost 5 years and was and still am a very lightweight drinker. I exercise most days, eat a well balanced diet and am very healthy other than the %#*^ cancer.

But I enjoy white wine and have no intention of giving it up. I only drink a little during the 3rd week after chemo and dilute it with ice (that wouldn't work with red :-)).

I wouldn't give up chocolate or sweets either - they are the only things that taste normal these days!

Best,

Janis

[chekmark]

Good question. I was never a big drinker, socially mostly and I got breast cancer. Diet and exercise makes sense with any disease but it does not guarantee anything. Since I have been out of treatment I still drink socially and try not to beat myself up over it. We only live once so we have to enjoy something. I find that people judge me when they see me have a drink, they look at me like what r u doing u have had cancer. Cancer takes so much away from us, self esteem, energy, hair,breast etc,etc,etc. I say enjoy a drink if u feel the need. Just my opinion. Cheers.

[Patb]

My mother said all in moderation, so nightly glass of red
wine for me. The can goods are probably worse. The plastic,we store things in, on and on. It is a crap shoot so enjoy.
patb

[tricia keegan]

The strange thing is that I hardly drank at all before my dx, I quit the ciggie's fourteen months ago but do intend to have a drink if I feel like it twice a week, all in moderation of course!

[StephN]

I wish there was a better understanding of "contributing factors" they come up with - for just about ANY disease.

I have continued to have a glass of wine - sometimes red or white or rose - with my dinner all this time. Beaujolais or low alcohol, sort of sweet German wine was all that tasted at all decent when I was on chemos (due to the mouth sores).

Anyone with stomach acid problems may want to avoid wine until that gets back under control.

Since my diagnosis I have been VERY careful about WHATEVER I buy. This includes garden and lawn products, house cleaners, soaps of all kinds, besides foods. Just takes a little longer to go to the right stores, read labels and talk to staff about the choices.

We have gone through our garage and tool room to get rid of old products and take them to the hazardous waste recycling station. Have more to take right now...

So, as many of you have said, we have a whole environment to deal with. I just try to make my home and property the least toxic as possible.

I also do not seem to have the genetic predisposition that would make a little alcohol intake a problem for me. In that context, I feel a glass of well made, small producer wine is my reward. (In Europe they consider wine as a food anyway!)

[chekmark]

I just want to say congrats to Bonnie on her sobriety. What an accomplishment.

[Forever_Fighting]

I was glad to come across this post since this is something I have been wondering about myself. The internet and research can be so overwhelming when you’re trying to figure out what you should or should not eat/drink when you have cancer.

Before I was dx’d, I was a regular drinker. I would enjoy a drink or two after work and a few more on the weekends, especially in the summer when BBQ season rolled around. Most of our friends drink so it was socially acceptable in our circle and I just plain enjoyed it.

When I was initially dx’d and started my treatments (radiation to be specific) I gave up everything, junk/fast food, smoking, caffeine and of course alcohol. My husband and I gutted our cupboards/fridge and went on a mass shopping spree to buy everything healthy we could think of. We didn’t eat that badly before this but we are both overweight and out of shape which we are now changing. Most of these diet changes were made from the fear of knowing the disease I had and wanting to do everything in my power to stop it. In the end, I had a very rough first week and even though the radiation caused me to feel tired all the time and lose my appetite a bit, I blame most of it on the withdrawals from quitting everything cold turkey (which I was also told by my radiation Doctor).

Once I started to feel better, the fatigue went away and my appetite came back, I treated myself to KFC one night and Chinese the next. The funny thing about that was, I don’t even like KFC, it was almost like a pregnancy craving, lol! I actually felt guilty about doing that and spoke to my Onco on my next appointment and although I need to avoid a few things, she told me to live my life and that anything in moderation is fine. My family Doctor also told me that unless I start waking up each morning and polishing off a bottle of vodka a day, a few drinks once and a while won't hurt me J

Since then I have allowed myself to feel normal again and enjoy some of the “bad things” in life on week three of my treatments. I figure going from living “badly” daily to once a month is a great change to my lifestyle and it also gives me something to look forward to between treatments as well as in general.

I only just started my chemo treatments (2 down so far) and I avoid alcohol the day before treatment as well as the first two weeks after but then it’s my time!! On week three (on the weekend), I spoil myself to a cup or two of coffee on one of the mornings, one of my favorite snacks (chips to be specific) and a few drinks that night with my husband if I feel the desire to do so!

We may all have an “illness” but we’re not dead and I have no intention on spending my last years in a bubble. I’m sad to say that I started smoking again but I went from ¾ of a pack a day to closet smoking and only having a few a day. I do plan on quitting smoking for good since I feel like I’m tempting fate by asking for a secondary form of cancer but the few I have are helping me cope right now.

In the end we all need to remember one thing, we’re still only human!!! J

[BonnieR]

Thanks Chekmatk! I just did it a day at a time! I must say, the principals I learned in AA served me well during treatment. A day at a time, Easy Does It, First Things First etc. and of course the Serenity Prayer
Keep the faith

[kvogler]

Well, I decided to quit all alcohol. I was a light drinker who had just started a year before the diagnosis. But I really don't like the taste of it good enough to get past the "what if" factor. Sweets on the other hand is a vice of mine that is much harder to tame. But if someone chooses to partake in moderation, I'm not raising an eyebrow. It's a personal decision.

[CoolBreeze]

Studies are showing a correlation. I drank heavy in my 20s. I was a bartender and both my parents are alcoholics, my mother died from alcoholic cirhossis of the liver and my dad is still drunk from morning to night. They hated non-drinkers and it never occurred to me, the way I was raised, that you could live your life without booze. I spent maybe ten years getting wasted every night.

When I got knocked up at age 28 and became a mother, that changed instantly. I didn't want to raise my child the way I'd been raised. I pretty much quit. I drank but very rarely, only socially, and very little. When I married my husband, we would have a couple beers at night and then I'd decide drinking every day was too much and we'd just have them on the weekend. I stopped even that when I got pregnant again, but as the child grew, we'd start our weekend habit again.

Then I got cancer and stopped. I have mets to my liver now. I'll never know if I did this to myself with all that partying in my 20s, although I don't believe I did. I do fall more into the crapshoot idea, after all my mother drank ten times more than I did and lived 78 years cancer-free, and my dad is going strong and falling down drunk at 83.

But, I believe that alcohol is unnecessary to life's enjoyment, it is a poison that the body has to metabolize out, with the chemos I take and the drugs I take I don't want to give my liver one more thing to do.

I might have a drink on my birthday, if I have the energy to go out somewhere. But once or twice a year is enough for me.

I don't care what anybody else does, but if you believe you can't stop that you have a problem that needs to be examined.

[Kellennea]

I go back and forth with it. I was never a heavy drinker, more of a social drinker, or a "Ive had a rough day at the office, I need a couple glasses of wine" drinker.

I asked my oncologist and she, like many, believes in the "all things in moderation" vibe... we're actually both members of the same local winery. I asked her if I should give up my membership and she said no... love her :)

I don't see anything wrong with enjoying a glass or two of wine with dinner or a night out with the girls. On a really stressful night, I might even indulge in an extra dirty martini with blue cheese olives :)

[caya]

I was never a heavy drinker - a few beers in the college years, more wine though - but never more than a couple of glasses/week. Once or twice I did imbibe a bit more than that -
After I got married, I would only have the occasional glass of wine at a wedding, Bar Mitzvah, dinner out with friends. I'm talking maybe 2-4 glasses/month - if that. I did not drink at all during chemo/Herceptin. I still occasionally will have a glass of red wine - if it's one glass/month, that would be it.

I was in the best shape of my adult life before diagnosis - I had lost about 20 lbs. going to a Curves-type ladies only circuit gym 4-5x/week, was eating well etc. Low blood pressure, cholesterol etc. When I got diagnosed, my GP just shook her head and said - "You're as healthy as a horse, except for the breast cancer..." My husband had a brain aneurysm 9 months before my diagnosis (we were very lucky, he is okay). I'm sure the stress of his surgery, recovery, and me taking over our business completely may have contributed to it. I think it's a bit of a crapshoot, and a bit of what we do. I tell my girls to watch the booze, because they are now at double the risk.

all the best
caya