Drinking Ups Risk of Benign Breast Disease

Teenage girls and young women who consume even moderate amounts of alcohol can increase their risk of developing pre-cancerous breast changes known as proliferative benign breast disease (BDD). In some cases, these changes have been shown to lead to breast cancer.

It's another example of alcohol being more dangerous for females than their male drinking companions.

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis looked at the alcohol consumption of 29,117 women who were in the Nurses' Health Study II who completed both adolescent alcohol consumption questions in 1989 and an adolescent diet questionnaire in 1998.

Benign Breast Disease

Simply stated, the study found that the more alcohol women aged 18 to 22 consumed, the greater their chances of developing benign breast disease.

The purpose of the study was to try to find if taking folate, a B vitamin, could reverse the effects of alcohol consumption as other studies had suggested. But the researchers found that folate consumption had no effect on benign breast disease, but alcohol did.

Just as other studies have found that even one drink a day can increase the risk of breast cancer, the new study found that one drink a day increased the risk of developing benign breast disease by 15 percent.

Avoiding Alcohol Suggested

Although not everyone who gets benign breast disease develops breast cancer, it is a consistent risk factor for breast cancer, experts say.

The authors of the study suggest that young women with other risk factors for breast cancer, such as a family history, should avoid alcohol altogether.

^{Source: Liu, Y., et al. "Intakes of Alcohol and Folate During Adolescence and Risk of Proliferative Benign Breast Disease." Pediatrics 10 Jan. 2012.}

More About Breast Cancer:

• Moderate Drinking Linked to Breast Cancer Risk
  
• Alcohol Use Increases Risk of Breast Cancer
  
• Alcohol Increases Breast Cancer Recurrence

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