Alcohol, diet, and risk of breast cancer
Menée au Danemark à partir de données portant sur 21 523 femmes ménopausées, cette étude de cohorte prospective évalue l'association entre une augmentation de leur consommation d'alcool sur une période de 5 ans, le risque de maladies coronariennes et le risque de cancer du sein
Public health messages should focus on alcohol and obesity while we wait for clearer evidence on dietary components ; Two linked papers in The BMJ shed new light on the relation of alcohol and diet with the two commonest diseases in women in western countries: breast cancer and ischaemic heart disease.1 2 After following the health of nearly 22 000 postmenopausal women in Denmark, Dam and colleagues1 report that, compared with women with a stable intake of alcohol, women who increased their alcohol intake by two drinks per day during five years of follow-up had an increase in risk of breast cancer of about 30% but a decrease in risk of ischaemic heart disease of about 20%.The results for breast cancer are in line with previous research, and the authors argue that the association with changes in alcohol intake provides stronger evidence that the relation is causal. For ischaemic heart disease, the apparent benefit in women who reported an …