Alcohol boosts cancer risk 'from the first drop,' study author says

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Talk about a black fly in your chardonnay.

Yet another study has claimed that alcohol, no matter the amount, offers no health benefits and is not safe to consume in a drinker’s golden years, according to a U.K. study, cited by the New York Post.

The 12-year study looked at the drinking habits of 135,000 people over the age of 60 and said even light drinking was linked to an increase in cancer deaths. The increase was even worse among older adults living in lower-income communities and those with health problems, the Post reported.

Lead study author Rosario Ortola, an assistant professor of preventive medicine and public health at the Autonomous University of Madrid, told the New York Times that drinking alcohol raises someone’s cancer risk “from the first drop.

“We did not find evidence of a beneficial association between low drinking and (overall) mortality,” Ortola said, via the Times.

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The study flies in the face of the previously held belief that a glass of red wine can provide health benefits, with the Post crediting research by the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria for raising the red flag.

The new research published Monday in the JAMA Network Open journal supported those findings, according to the Post, regardless of health or socioeconomic status.

The study also linked heavy drinking — more than 40 grams a day for men and 20 grams for women, with the standard U.S. drink containing 14 grams of alcohol — to more deaths from all causes.

Distilled Spirits Council senior vice-president Amanda Berger took issue with the study, however, telling the Post that the new research “contradicts decades of robust scientific evidence consistently demonstrating that moderate drinkers live at least as long as non-drinkers.”

The news comes after the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction said in a 2023 update to its health guidelines that “no amount or kind of alcohol is good for your health” and one to two drinks per week was the maximum recommendation to avoid health issues like heart disease and cancer.

The World Health Organization has also said alcohol is a carcinogen and consumption boosts the risk of breast, liver, head and neck, esophageal and colorectal cancers, among others, according to the Post.