this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
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I’ve been drinking for 7 years. Typicall I’ve only drank 3-4 drinks a year. If I stop drinking now, would that help decrease chances of cancer? If it does will it take a long time?

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[–] [email protected] 102 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Don’t take this the wrong way, but if you’re worried about getting cancer from 3-4 drinks per year, it sounds like you might be dealing with a fair bit of anxiety.

Stress caused by anxiety is bad for your health and a possible cancer risk, and almost certainly worse for you than 3-4 drinks a year. I don’t want you to now be anxious about your anxiety, but this might be a good thing to focus on to improve your general quality of life (and possibly reduce your cancer risk in the process).

You could start by talking to a doctor or other medical professional about it, or try finding a therapist in your area. The therapist search on https://www.psychologytoday.com/ is a good place to look, or try an online service like Better Help.

[edit: corrected overstatement about stress being a major cancer risk]

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Stress caused by anxiety is a major cancer risk, definitely much more so than 3-4 drinks a year.

Oh great, another thing to be anxious about. My anxiety is going so out of control it's going meta now.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Joey: Monica. Relax. Go get a beer.
Monica: I don't want a beer!
Joey: Who said it was for you?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Joey: Monica. Relax. Go get a beer.
Monica: I don't want a beer!
Joey: Who said it was for you?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Have you ever had chest pain because of anxiety...and then the chest pain itself gives you anxiety about having chest pain?? Lmao

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How does anxiety cause cancer?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Cortisol, the "stress hormone", has been shown to possibly accelerate cancer development.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9216328/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

So if you have cancer, the important thing is not to be worried at all about the horrific illness and potential death that you're facing. Simple....

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Fair question, and looks like I overstated that link.

Chronic stress affects your immune system (via cortisol, long term inflammation) and that is no bueno for all sorts of health outcomes, including likely making it harder to fight off tumours.

But to my surprise, there doesn’t actually seem to be solid evidence of a causal link between stress and increased risk of developing cancer.

[–] [email protected] 82 points 1 year ago (23 children)

3-4 drinks per year won't affect your cancer risk. Unless you've been drinking radium or something.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

What if I've been drinking radium

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

Jesus, dude. You need a drink.

[–] MelastSB 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you've been drinking 3-4 drinks a year for 7 years, you'd almost decrease your chances of cancer by drinking more lol

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you are referring to the J curve (that the lowest point is those who drink a little), it's usually explained that those who don't drink at all usually do so because of poor health.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I don't drink because alcohol gives me bad heartburn and a headache long before I get drunk. Guess that does sorta count as being in poor health.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

i dont drink because i mistook mine and my mothers bottle and in hers where beer. Still traumatised how disguisting it tasted

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

3-4 drinks a year is nothing, I have alcohol intolerance (stomach cancer risks) and I can probably drink that.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Maybe 3 or 4 drinks before lunch you may need to worry

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

You drink 3-4 time a year? It would change absolutely nothing for you stopping drinking. Getting cancer is a game of probability. Risk factors increase the probability (do not necessarily cause cancer). Your 4 drinks don't change anything, don't worry. Thing is different if you drink 3 drinks a day...

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Probably but by a very very very very very small amount. So small it's essentially no change at all.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Alcohol, similar to eating red meat, smoking, sunlight, smoked food, etc a cancer risk, but it does not always cause cancer. Given that you lifetime chance of developing cancer is around 50%, a 0.5% increased chance of cancer is fairly insignificant on an individual level (but from a public health standpoint it might be), but a 20% increase is.

A small amount of alcohol like this presents a fairly insignificant risk. There is no truly safe level, but you would have to drink a lot for a significantly increase in cancer risk. At that point you are at a far higher risk of other forms of poisoning. Even just drunkenness itself highly increase your risk of major falls, car crashes, even house fires. With alcohol, cancer is the least of it's problems.

There are some large, easily avoidable cancer risks in daily life, like sunlight exposure, which can be prevented with sunscreen. Whenever you hear that "X causes cancer", always find out how big the effect is, it could be almost insignificant like eating red meat, or a huge risk, like smoking or sunburns .

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

That's really not a lot of drinking. I guess technically, yes, it would decrease the risk but your risk is already really low at 3-4 servings of alcohol per year.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

True enough, but you should try to not worry about cancer as much. Not saying don't stop drinking; only good things can come out of not drinking alcohol, but stress and anxiety are also pretty bad for your health. If this is as bad as it looks, you might wanna talk to a professional.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Nope, no measurable effect.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Only if you're a White Lab Rat. Anything gives them cancer. Otherwise, unless your drinks are in excess of a gallon per glass I don't think you've a worry.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You already have cancer from the one drop of alcohol you drank 7 years ago

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