Alcohol guidelines don’t account for cancer risk, experts say Health Consultant

Alcohol guidelines don’t account for cancer risk, experts say

Recommendations for sensible drinking focus too much on the short-term risks, not the long-term health threats such as cancer. That’s the conclusion of a new analysis out this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Current guidelines, which were developed in the early 1980s, are based mainly on the social and psychological problems of excessive drinking. But they disregard the dose-response relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of cancer, according to the CMAJ analysis.

The authors argue that new evidence linking alcohol and cancer suggest that the guidelines should be revised. The authors also say that in the past, representatives of alcohol producers helped define sensible drinking guidelines, creating a potential conflict of interest, and that the guidelines don’t consider how alcohol increases the risk of certain chronic diseases.

The authors wrote:

Although guidelines are currently practical for health professionals and health authorities, the time has come to reconsider them using a scientific basis independent of any cultural and economic considerations and to discuss the eventuality of abandoning them.

See our report on the pros and cons of drinking alcohol and how to tell if you drink too much.

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