I’ve been drinking for 7 years. Typicall I’ve only drank 3-4 drinks a year. If I stop drinking now, would that help decrease chances of cancer? If it does will it take a long time?
3-4 drinks per year won’t affect your cancer risk. Unless you’ve been drinking radium or something.
What if I’ve been drinking radium
That’s completely wrong. There’s no safe level of alcohol intake:
https://time.com/6248439/no-safe-amount-of-alcohol/
Edit: from the articles, in case you don’t have time to read them:
“We cannot talk about a so-called safe level of alcohol use. It doesn’t matter how much you drink—the risk to the drinker’s health starts from the first drop of any alcoholic beverage”
As a non-drinker who has seen the ravages of alcohol abuse in several loved ones, I completely understand the “no level is safe” guideline.
That said, 3-4 drinks per year is far below any measure of alcohol use that is seriously studied, where researchers look at drinking at the “amount per week” level. 3-4 drinks per year is essentially on the level of being a non-drinker.
Technically yes, but 3-4 drinks per year is such a small amount it’s going to make a negligible difference.
Yep, it’s like saying that drinking communion wine at church is a risky amount of alcohol.
Yeah, when everyone knows it’s really religion that’s cancerous.
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An effect can be observable but still negligible in terms of the actual increase of risk.
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Change of risk for 3 drinks a year is unnoticeable. You can’t tell it from normal noise.
No safe level of sunlight by the same logic.
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Oh come on, you don’t have to drink. Drinking is a choice and an easily avoidable health risk.
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If you’ve been drinking 3-4 drinks a year for 7 years, you’d almost decrease your chances of cancer by drinking more lol
Jesus, dude. You need a drink.
3-4 drinks a year is nothing, I have alcohol intolerance (stomach cancer risks) and I can probably drink that.
You drink 3-4 time a year? It would change absolutely nothing for you stopping drinking. Getting cancer is a game of probability. Risk factors increase the probability (do not necessarily cause cancer). Your 4 drinks don’t change anything, don’t worry. Thing is different if you drink 3 drinks a day…
Probably but by a very very very very very small amount. So small it’s essentially no change at all.
Does that apply to the chance of developing cancer or only decreasing
Maybe 3 or 4 drinks before lunch you may need to worry
That’s really not a lot of drinking. I guess technically, yes, it would decrease the risk but your risk is already really low at 3-4 servings of alcohol per year.
it might. but the difference would be absolutely marginal. also there’s a line between reasonably moderating your life not to die of cancer at 30 and worrying about everything and micromanaging every single aspect of your life to minimize your risk of cancer, which could ironically increase it. i know you didnt say anything like that, but many keep reading that x thing causes cancer and cut it out of their lives, then read that y causes it too and so on, just be reasonable
You already have cancer from the one drop of alcohol you drank 7 years ago
Don’t take this the wrong way, but if you’re worried about getting cancer from 3-4 drinks per year, it sounds like you might be dealing with a fair bit of anxiety.
Stress caused by anxiety is bad for your health and a possible cancer risk, and almost certainly worse for you than 3-4 drinks a year. I don’t want you to now be anxious about your anxiety, but this might be a good thing to focus on to improve your general quality of life (and possibly reduce your cancer risk in the process).
You could start by talking to a doctor or other medical professional about it, or try finding a therapist in your area. The therapist search on https://www.psychologytoday.com/ is a good place to look, or try an online service like Better Help.
[edit: corrected overstatement about stress being a major cancer risk]
Stress caused by anxiety is a major cancer risk, definitely much more so than 3-4 drinks a year.
Oh great, another thing to be anxious about. My anxiety is going so out of control it’s going meta now.
Have a drink and relax.
Note that moderate intake of alcohol can be beneficial to health.
More than 100 prospective studies show an inverse association between light to moderate drinking and risk of heart attack, ischemic (clot-caused) stroke, peripheral vascular disease, sudden cardiac death, and death from all cardiovascular causes.
But if you’re only considering cancer, then as some of the other answers suggested, cutting alcohol intake to zero could reduce the risk of getting cancer, although the reduction is likely very small that’s neglectable.
Actually, if you stop drinking you’ll eliminate the risk of getting cancer from alcohol. That’s a fact. Not drinking any alcohol is the only way to avoid getting cancer from it. Same is true for tobacco.
Now, there are many things that can give you cancer, from environmental factors to genetic ones. So, there are a lot of things not under your control that may still give you cancer.
But if you want to, at least, eliminate the ones you can control, not drinking alcohol and not smoking are two good candidates. There are others, related to your diet that you can control (some related to red meats, for example).
From all I’ve read, there’s no safe level of alcohol intake. So, I became a teetotaler a few years ago. It’s not that bad. There’s are lots of alternatives that still allow you to socialize in a group that’s drinking. If you have any questions, just ask.
Edit: regarding what you ask, the effects are immediate. Same for tobacco. The sooner you stop, the better for your body. Now, you don’t drink much, but if you did, you’ll lose tolerance for alcohol pretty quickly. I can no longer tolerate alcohol, and I don’t even like the smell of it anymore. It’s actually pretty curious.
