Congratulations on 7 years cancer free! Here’s what we know about alcohol and breast cancer.
1.Alcohol is a known human carcinogen since 2000; see the DHHS Toxicology report from that year.
2.A study of 150,000 women worldwide by British researchers concluded that drinking as little as 1 drink a day increases the risk of breast cancer. (Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. (2002) British Journal of Cancer: 87, 1234-1245)
3.Any kind of alcohol consumed changes the levels of female hormones, thus causing more estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer. (Dorgan, J.F., Baer, D.J. et.al. (2001). Serum Hormones and the alcohol-breast cancer association in post menopausal women. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 93, pp 710-715.)
4.Alcohol interferes with a large quantity of both over-the-counter and prescription medications.
5.Alcohol has no nutritional value. Controversy exists related to the health benefits (cardiovascular) of wine; however, after having breast cancer once, you are in a higher risk category for recurrence anyway. Adding a known carcinogen may increase the risk even more.
In my humble opinion, a healthy post-cancer lifestyle would NOT include alcohol for these reasons.