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Of course alcohol increases the risk of some cancers - it's a known carcinogen. On top of that it can be highly addictive. On the other hand, though, it's som

Of course alcohol increases the risk of some cancers - it's a known carcinogen. On top of that it can be highly addictive. On the other hand, though, it's something a lot of people enjoy as as social lubricant, and there is also the evidence that drinking in moderation lowers the risk of heart disease. So like many things in life the question is whether the positive outweighs the negative - that of course depends largely on your own risk factors for cancer, heart disease, and, yes... alcoholism.

carbocation 9y ago
The best evidence we have suggests that there is no safe amount of alcohol from the standpoint of heart disease[1]. The data supporting the safety (or even benefit) of a small amount of alcohol came from observational studies, which are often heavily confounded. This study used Mendelian randomization (MR) to get around that limitation. MR can be confounded by pleiotropy, but this study (which suggests harm from alcohol intake) is still higher quality evidence than the observational studies done previously. 1 = http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g4164 http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g4164