Young women heading back to college should reconsidered the amount of beer they consume; though is typical college culture to drink heavily, the more alcohol a young lady consumes before motherhood, the greater the risk she will develop breast cancer.
Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggest they have found a link between breast cancer risk and alcohol consumption in early adolescence.
"Study findings suggest that for every bottle of beer, glass of wine or shot of liquor consumed daily, a young woman increases her risk of proliferative benign breast disease by 15 percent," the University said in a news release. "Although such lesions are noncancerous, their presence increases breast cancer risk by as much as 500 percent."
The findings were published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It is one of the first studies to look into the effects of drinking alcohol earlier in life.
"More and more heavy drinking is occurring on college campuses and during adolescence, and not enough people are considering future risk. But, according to our research, the lesson is clear: If a female averages a drink per day between her first period and her first full-term pregnancy, she increases her risk of breast cancer by 13 percent," co-author Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, associate director for cancer prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, said in a news release.
The study review health histories of 91,005 mothers enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study II from 1989 to 2009. According to the researchers, breast tissue cells are "particularly susceptible" to "cancer-causing substances."
"Parents should educate their daughters about the link between drinking and risk of breast cancer and breast disease," co-author Ying Liu, MD, PhD, a School of Medicine instructor in the Division of Public Health Sciences. "That's very important because this time period is very critical."
