Toasting the Holiday Season: Considering your Alcohol Consumption

Dr. Fawaad Iqbal, Radiation Oncologist, Durham Regional Cancer Centre, on behalf of the Central East Regional Cancer Program.

As we welcome the holiday season, it may be common for some of us to celebrate with rum and eggnog or to raise a glass and toast the New Year with champagne; but as we enjoy the festivities with our loved ones, I would like to highlight an aspect of alcohol consumption that is often overlooked.

The sobering reality is that alcohol causes around 7,000 cancers per year in Canada, a fact that is unknown to most people.

When we think of cancer and what to avoid, everyone knows smoking causes cancer. But very few people are aware that consuming alcohol similarly increases your risk. The mortality risk from consuming one glass of alcohol is similar to smoking one cigarette.

As a radiation oncologist who treats cancer at the Durham Regional Cancer Centre at Lakeridge Health’s Oshawa Hospital, I’ve never had a patient who smokes ask me how they got lung cancer. The risks of smoking are well-known and advertised. However, patients with colorectal or breast cancer are frequently surprised to hear that alcohol is a known carcinogen that may have caused their cancer.

Research has shown that there is no safe amount of alcohol you can consume, it all comes with some level of risk. The more you drink, the higher your risk becomes. Drinking three or more standard-sized alcoholic beverages per week, regardless of the type of alcohol, puts you at “moderate” risk of developing several types of cancers including female breast, colon, rectum, oral, liver, esophagus, throat, and larynx (voice box) according to the research from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.

It doesn’t just end with cancer. Drinking alcohol carries both short- and long-term risks, such as trauma and also increases your risk of developing several other chronic illnesses, such as heart and liver disease.

Today, cancer remains the leading cause of death in Ontario. An estimated 1 in 2 people in Ontario will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime and about 1 in 4 will die from the disease. Reducing the amount of alcohol we drink is one way we can lower our risk of getting cancer.

I do recognize our society’s complex relationship with alcohol, particularly during celebrations and holidays. If you choose to drink, please choose to have less. I hope that reading this short column has helped to raise your awareness. Please share this information with your family and friends.

For more information on cancer prevention, visit the Central East Regional Cancer Program’s new cancer screening and prevention website at www.cercp.ca.