Alcohol: Oh tequila, it makes me happy.

I have been putting off writing this for some time…
the reason? I bloody love alcohol. I love wine, I love beer, I love cider, I love gin, I love tequila, I love cocktails…
there are very few versions of alcohol that I don’t like or wouldn’t drink. I love the taste, I love the way it makes me feel, and (apart from the hangovers) I love everything about it.

As I write this I’m 2 weeks away from my 33rd birthday. I have been drinking alcohol probably from the age of about 16. I worked in a local nightclub when I was 18 so would drink most weekends but would watch my friends getting drunk more than I was getting drunk, this was until I went to Uni.

I am definitely not alcohol dependent, I don’t drink during the week, I can drink in moderation, but I’ve also been known to drink to excess, more often than I’d like to admit. This often results in waking up with a raging headache the next day along with a healthy dose of hangxiety (the dread/anxiety you get following a heavy session).

I stopped drinking during chemotherapy, I did this because I thought my body is going to be (let’s face it) poisoned for the best part of 5 months. I don’t need to add anything else into the mixer. Give the liver a break! I’m sure it breathed a sigh of relief when it realised what was happening.

I enjoyed small sips of wine when we went out for meals and if Dan or my family opened a particularly delicious bottle of wine I would have a very tiny amount. I drank non alcoholic beers, non alcoholic cocktails and a lot of sparkling/soda water and lime, and do you know what? I felt great for it (chemo aside). I felt smug for not feeling hungover when people around me were. I felt pleased that I’d not had the extra calories and I still got to enjoy the deliciousness of the wine with a small sip. Winner winner chicken dinner.

When my chemo was nearing an end … I thought, I don’t need to go back to drinking alcohol, I think I can stay like this, enjoy a sip or two and then stop.

Needless to say that did not happen.

Post chemo was celebration time, Dan and I went on holiday (to France, with arguably some of the best wines in the world - it’s rude not to drink there), we saw different friends every weekend and it was party, party, party! I was making up for lost time. I’ve had a fabulous few months post chemo and treatments celebrating with friends and family and drinking as if there really is no tomorrow but now I’ve made the tough to decision to stop.

Why?

I was doing some reading around vitamin D and cancer (click here to read that) and I saw one study that showed if people with triple negative breast cancer (my cancer) drank alcohol (more than 3 drinks a week) it can increase the risk of recurrence by 50%….

F*ck that.

I’ve not gone through all this sh*t to drink my way back to recurrence.

So I thought I’d look at the facts and studies and share them with you all.

Now strap yourselves in, it’s a bumpy ride….

Alcohol can CAUSE cancer. It does this in 3 ways;

It can cause damage to our cells within our bodies and can prevent them from healing which can lead to cancerous changes.
It can increase certain hormones such as oestrogen and insulin which can affect certain types of cancers.
It can make the cells in our mouths/throats absorb harmful chemicals more easily that may cause cancer.

The 7 types of cancer it can cause are;

Breast
Bowel
Liver
Mouth
Pharynx (upper throat)
Larynx (voice box)
Oesophagus (food pipe)

They also think it may play a role in stomach cancer.

Now… ANY amount of alcohol increases your risk for

Breast cancer
Mouth cancer
Pharynx cancer
Larynx cancer
Oesophagus cancer

Drinking 2 or more drinks a day (around 3.5 units) increases your risk for

Colorectal cancer

Drinking 3 or more drinks a day (around 5 units) increases your risk for

Liver cancer
Stomach cancer

If you drink one drink a day (about 1.25 units) your risk increases compared to if you didn’t drink for;

Mouth, pharynx and larynx cancer by around 15%
Oesophagus cancer by 25%
Breast cancer by 7%
Colorectal cancer by 7%
Liver cancer by 4%
Stomach cancer by 2%

A woman drinking between 14 and 35 units per week

= 15% risk of developing breast cancer

compared to an 11% risk if she didn’t drink at all.

A man drinking up to 14 units per week

= 0.6% chance of developing colorectal cancer

A man drinking over 35 units per week

= 11% chance of developing colorectal cancer

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the WORLD.

Alcohol is one of the biggest, modifiable risk factors for it.

Modifiable meaning we can modify that risk factor - we can stop drinking.

4,400+ cases of breast cancer in the UK are thought to be related to alcohol intake (40,000 in Europe and 144, 000 in the World). Yet this is something that we do not talk about and I definitely was not aware to what extent alcohol can increase your risk and I’m a ruddy Doctor.

It’s thought that drinking a bottle of wine a week is the equivalent in terms of cancer risk to smoking 10 cigarettes a week (with most of the risk being breast cancer risk).

See here for lots of studies summarised and a lot of information regarding alcohol and cancer.

With regards to breast cancer recurrence and alcohol consumption - there appears to be some conflicting evidence in different studies. Here it suggests 3 or 4 or more alcoholic drinks a week leads to a 1.3x or 1.5x increased risk of recurrence but only in post menopausal, overweight women. (This is equal to a 30-50% increase).

Here is a review of some studies and again they’re conflicting but the majority seem to show an increased risk of recurrence with alcohol consumption.

Some studies suggest that there is no correlation between alcohol intake and recurrence but there aren’t many studies that support this. Click here to read more.

Some studies even suggest those who drank more before diagnosis have a better outcome than those who didn’t drink at all (here’s hoping 🤞…)

In summary…

We know alcohol increases your risk of 7 types of cancer. We know it can increase your risk of breast cancer, even in modest doses. There is some suggestion it can increase your risk of recurrence of breast cancer.

Based on all of this, I’m stopping drinking.

Not completely. I will have a drink for someone’s birthday, a special occasion etc. My plan will be one or none, as in, I have one drink and one drink only or I have none.

Thanks alcohol, you’ve been great, but it’s time to move on.

Need help with stopping or reducing your drinking?