Heavy Drinking Linked To Prostate Cancer: Study
Posted March 16, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The most common type of cancer among Canadian men has been linked to heavy drinking.
Prostate cancer is much more prevalent among those with high alcohol consumption, a multi-country analysis of 35 past studies found.
The team from Canada, the United States and Australia looked at research that had already been published about the disease.
They found that men who consumed 14 or more drinks a week are about 20 per cent more likely to develop prostate cancer than abstainers or light drinkers.
But not everyone agrees with the latest findings.
“I don’t buy it,” declared Dr. Laurence Klotz, Urologist. “The reason I don’t buy it is so many compounding factors involved in doing this study.”
“A 65-year-old may not recollect accurately how much they took in the his 20s or 30s,” he notes.
Secondly, the 20% increase in risk with heavier drinkers is not as significant as other risk factors
“Not like family history with the three to six times greater risk or an elevated P.S.A. with a four to 10 time greater risk.”
Finally the association with alcohol may be related to another established risk factor.
“We know that obesity and prostate cancer are linked,” Klotz concludes. “Men who are heavy tend to be heavier physically, may tend to be more overweight.”
The risks of the disease also increase with age. That led to a different finding in countries with levels of high drinking but a short life expectancy. In Russia, for example, the team did not see as many instances of prostate cancer.
On average, 475 Canadian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and 83 men will die of the disease every week.
One in 7 men will develop prostate cancer during his lifetime, mostly after age 60. One in 27 will die of it.
Prostate Cancer Risk Factors:
There is no single cause of prostate cancer, but some factors appear to increase the risk of developing it. Having these risk factors doesn’t mean that you will develop prostate cancer. It means that your chances of developing it are higher.
You may be at higher risk if you:
- are older than 65
- have a family history of prostate cancer
- are of African ancestry
Obesity, physical inactivity, eating a diet high in fat, and working with a metal called cadmium are being studied as possible risk factors. Eating a diet high in calcium is being studied as a possible risk factor. Calcium has many health benefits, and research so far tells us that the levels of calcium have to be very high – much higher than in the average man’s diet – for it to be a concern.
It is possible to develop prostate cancer without having any of these risk factors.
Source: Canadian Cancer Society
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