Galery

1

Not only cigarettes, but alcohol appears to play a major role in cancer formation in the body too. Those who tipple are much more likely to develop cancer than those who do not drink. These are the conclusions of a study held among more than 363 000 participants from eight European countries, including Greece. According to the analysis published by the British Medical Journal and quoted in the Greek edition of Ta Nea, the alcohol is the reason for about 10% of the malignancies in men and about 3% of them in women. This applies to those who drink alcohol moderately and not every day. The risk of incidence of cancer increases to 18% at least in men exceeding the daily dose, while in women it climbs just to 4%.

44% of the cancer formation in the upper digestive system, like cancer of the esophagus, mouth or throat is associated with alcohol consumption. In malignant diseases of the bowel that percentage is 33 and the alcohol is the reason for only 25% of the cases in the liver.

The analyses show that a 125 ml glass of wine contains 12 g pure alcohol. The same amount of pure alcohol is contained in a 260 ml glass of beer. Experts say the recommended amount, which is not healthy to exceed a day, is 24 g of alcohol or two glasses of wine. In Greece, one third of men and one quarter of women on average exceed the recommended daily amount of alcohol. Almost 40% of men and 33.2% of women in Greece drink less than the assumed average amount of alcohol. It is found that only 6.7% of the boys and 21% of the girls over 15 years have not yet tried alcohol.

According to a publication of the Greek portal bestrong.org.gr, the greatest friends of the alcohol remain the Greeks of the old generation, aged 55-64 years. It is found out that 60% of women and 84% of men among those who drink, whether mild or hard alcoholic drinks, consume alcohol in normal amounts in a lifetime. The men and women from this group take respectively 27.4% and 14.4% alcohol daily.

The study involved experts from the University of Athens such as the Honorary Professor of Nutrition and Preventive Medicine Antonia Trichopoulou, the Professor in the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology Vasiliki Benetou and the expert from the Laboratory of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics Demosthenes Zilis.

"Many types of cancers could be avoided if alcohol consumption is limited to two glasses for men and one glass for women, as the major health organizations recommend," says the nutritionist from the German Institute of Human Nutrition and responsible for the study Madlen Schutze. She stresses that beside the negative effects known so far, many people have no idea that the increased alcohol consumption could increase the risk of cancer and therefore it is required to give wider publicity to the problem.

In many cases, the alcohol is the culprit for the formation of breast cancer in women. When degraded in the body, the alcohol produces chemicals that can affect the DNA of the cells and thus increase the risk of cancer. To avoid cancer the experts recommend minimizing alcohol consumption, exercising and keeping the weight in norm. These simple rules greatly reduce the threat of the painful death disease.