Having more than six drinks a week carries a high risk of health problems, including cancer, according to new proposed guidelines published on Monday.
And for women who drink three or more drinks per week, the risk of health damage increases more compared to men, according to the research. These findings are why the Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), a national advisory organization, recommends that people drink less per week.
“The key message of this project is that when it comes to alcohol, less is better. Everyone should try to reduce their alcohol consumption,” said Catherine Paradis, senior research and policy analyst at CCSA and co-chair of Low Risk Alcohol Canada. Consumption guidelines.
It’s no secret that alcohol isn’t good for you, experts say. It has been classified as a group 1 carcinogen (carcinogenic to humans) for decades by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
But not everyone is aware that alcohol consumption has been associated with numerous health risks, including at least seven types of cancer, Paradis said.
That’s why the guidelines – which the public can take into account – talk about the health risks and how this increases with the number of drinks. With alcohol consumption on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic, some health officials say this new report and drinking guidelines may help further emphasize the health risks.
“It’s putting the hammer down to say, ‘look, pay attention to what you’re doing.’ And hopefully people will pay attention,” said Dr. Fawaad Iqbal, a radiation oncologist at Durham Regional Cancer Center in Oshawa, Ont.
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“The people of Canada have a right to know”
But experts say the risks associated with drinking alcohol need to be made clearer beyond these recommendations. Iqbal and those who worked on the CCSA guidelines want to see cancer warnings and the number of standard drinks listed on bottles or cans of alcohol.
“Whether or not consumers decide to use that information is up to them. But there’s a lot of evidence that if you say up front, ‘this is hurting your health and you can get cancer because of it,'” the people will. change their decision-making about how much they drink,” Iqbal said.
Since the last drinking guidelines were published in 2011, the evidence about health problems and alcohol use has changed a lot, says Paradis. That’s why Paradis and his colleagues looked at dozens of studies on alcohol problems and health as part of the new guidelines.
While all levels of alcohol consumption carry some risk, their report shows a range of risks based on how many glasses of wine or bottles of beer a person has each week.
For example, they found that health risks are negligible or low with two or fewer glasses of wine per week. If the number of drinks increases between three and six standard drinks a week, the risk of health problems is moderate.
But having more than six glasses of wine or cider a week makes the risk of health problems “increasingly higher”.
“We know it’s going to be surprising and some people might even be upset about it. But we didn’t embark on this project to win a popularity contest with scientists,” Paradis said.
“Our whole perspective throughout this project is that the people of Canada have a right to know.”
Drinking increases the risk of breast cancer
The new findings are significantly different from the 2011 guidelines created by CCSA. These suggested no more than 10 standard drinks a week for women and 15 standard drinks a week for men.
Paradis says one reason the 2011 recommendations were higher was because of the belief that alcohol had some health benefits for cardiovascular disease. But now, new research shows that’s probably no longer the case, he said.
“Actually, in our own study, we found that alcohol was neither good nor bad at low levels to protect against some cardiovascular diseases. At higher levels, it actually has a detrimental impact,” he said.
Alcohol consumption in Canada causes almost 7,000 cancer deaths each year in Canada, according to the report.
Beer is displayed on the shelves of a Vancouver liquor store in this July 12, 2019, file photo. New guidelines say drinking more than six glasses of wine or cider a week increases the risk of health be “higher and higher”. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
And specifically for women, having three or more drinks a week carries a greater risk of health problems compared to men, according to the report’s data. They include several reasons, including differences in metabolism.
Breast cancer risk increased with more alcohol, Paradis said, adding that one in 35 women will die from breast cancer in Canada.
“If you have six drinks a week, you increase your chances of being that woman by 10 percent,” he said, adding that the risk starts with a standard one or two drinks a week.
Allison Garber, a Halifax communications business owner and sobriety advocate, said she wishes she knew more about the increased cancer risk sooner. Both her mother and grandmother had breast cancer and she lost her mother to cancer.
“I think this report will save a lot of lives,” he said, adding that it’s good to see a greater focus on education.
“I think it’s an individual choice whether people drink alcohol or not, but I think it’s fundamentally important that it’s an informed choice.”
Label the health risks
Some Canadians have reported an increase in excessive alcohol consumption in recent years.
A Statistics Canada Survey released in 2021 shows that many Canadians aren’t just pouring themselves a single glass. Almost one in five survey respondents said they consumed five or more drinks, the equivalent of a bottle of wine, on the days they reported drinking in the previous month.
The agency says that’s higher than before COVID-19.
For women specifically, having three or more drinks a week carries a higher risk of health problems compared to men, according to data from the Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction report. (Justine Bouln/CBC)
The CCSA report was launched before the pandemic, but Paradis says adults need to know more about the alcohol they buy and how it can affect their health.
Paradis and the other authors of the report, along with Iqbal, say bottles of wine and other alcohol should clearly display health warnings and nutrition information. He adds that people should be able to count their drinks to know how much alcohol they’re consuming, but they can’t do that unless it’s explicitly stated on the label.
“The main message we want to get across with this is that in general, alcohol is not good for your health and that when it comes to alcohol, drinking less is better,” Paradis said.
The guidelines are likely to become official guidance sometime this fall.