While it is widely accepted that regular heavy drinking can cause cancer, a new study has found a direct link between drinking and skin cancer. Not exactly the best news to receive just before Christmas.
The large study, published in an American Association for Cancer Research journal, gathered data from 210,252 participants who they surveyed on their drinking habits, residences, and health history (including sun exposure and tanning), and the results are pretty depressing.
The research found that drinking one drink a day (that’s 12.8 grams of alcohol, or one beer, glass of wine, or a single spirit and mixer) causes a 14 percent greater risk of skin cancer.
However, if white wine is your tipple of choice the news is even more bleak. The scientists found that white wine drinkers had a 13 percent greater risk of skin cancer in comparison to people who drank red wine, beer, or spirit based drinks.
Eunyoung Cho, ScD, an associate professor of dermatology and epidemiology at Warren Alpert, suggested that the high content of acetaldehyde in white wine might be to blame. Acetaldehyde can cause DNA damage which in turn can increase the risk of cancer.
Cho emphasised that this study does not confirm a cause-and-effect relationship between white wine and skin cancer, but highlighted it was important that people knew about the link so they could limit their drinking accordingly.