MEN who binge drink increase the risk of developing one of the most deadly cancers by more than three times.
US researchers have found a direct link between alcohol and pancreatic cancer, which is often not caught until it is too advanced to be treated.
The study found that merely having a drink increases the risk from 1.5 times to six times, depending on the amount and frequency of boozing.
About 7 out of 10 cases of chronic pancreatitis are due to long term heavy drinking. Chronic pancreatitis is a known risk factor for cancer of the pancreas. But chronic pancreatitis that is due to alcohol doesn’t increase risk as much as other types of chronic pancreatitis. If there is a link between alcohol and pancreatic cancer risk, it is limited to people who drink more than 5 units of alcohol a day (37 grams of alcohol).
Alcohol and pancreatic cancer link
“Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, so any risk factor that can be identified and addressed may save lives,” Dr. Gupta said. “Our research found that large and frequent amounts of alcohol consumption may be risk factors for pancreatic cancer.”
Previous studies inconsistently have linked alcohol and pancreatic cancer. Dr. Gupta said his study is different, however, because the researchers collected more detailed information on alcohol consumption and binge drinking than other studies and because the researchers were able to analyze the data for multiple factors that previously hadn’t been considered in great detail.
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September 20th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
The risk of stroke appears to double in the hour after consuming just one drink – be it wine, beer or hard liquor.
“The impact of alcohol on your risk of ischemic stroke (caused by a blood clot in a vessel) appears to depend on how much and how often you drink,” said Murray A. Mittleman, senior author of the Stroke Onset Study (SOS).
Mittleman is a cardiologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at the Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Prior to the SOS, researchers didn’t know if alcohol consumption had an immediate impact on ischemic stroke, according to a Harvard statement.
Researchers interviewed 390 ischemic stroke patients (209 men, 181 women) about three days after their stroke regarding many aspects of their lives, reports Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Compared with times when alcohol wasn’t being used, the relative risk of stroke after alcohol consumption was:
* 2.3 times higher in the first hour;
* 1.6 times higher in the second hour; and
* 30 percent lower than baseline after 24 hours.
The patterns remained the same whether participants had consumed wine, beer or distilled spirits.
“The evidence on heavy drinking is consistent: Both in the long- and short-term it raises stroke risk,” Mittleman said.
Just after drinking, blood pressure rises and blood platelets become stickier, which may increase the possibility of a clot forming.
Stroke is the No. 3 killer and a leading cause of long-term major disability in the US, says American Heart Association.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Scientists have identified a protein that could provide a target to develop new treatments for pancreatic cancer or enable earlier diagnosis.
Researchers from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry found that nearly three quarters of pancreatic cancer tumours had high levels of a protein known as ‘P110?’.
In laboratory experiments, when production of this protein was blocked, the cancer cells stopped growing.
“It is a striking number of patients who present with high levels of P110?. The fact that P110? is needed for pancreatic cancer cells to grow shows that it is likely to have a critical role in the progression of the disease, which makes it a potential target for developing new treatments,” said Marco Falasca, Professor of Molecular Pharmacology, who led the research.
Results from the screening show that high levels of P110? were seen in 72 percent of the cancerous tissue while none could be found in the normal corresponding tissue. And when the researchers blocked production of the P110? protein, the cancer cells stopped growing.
The findings are published online in Clinical Cancer Research.