Looks like all that beer drinking is coming back to bite us on the ass:
A doctor who describes himself as a former beer drinker has found that significant beer or other alcohol consumption — with the exception of red wine — increases the risk of colorectal cancer.
[...]
[Dr. Joseph] Anderson said he's no longer a beer fan even though he had no problems. What he found, though, were serious health issues in many of his beer- and spirits-imbibing patients.Anderson said he found that his patients who drank eight or more glasses of beer or about the same number of stronger alcoholic beverages per week had a significantly elevated chance of having precancerous polyps or fully developed colorectal cancers.
"Beer and spirits are probably just as important as a family history of colorectal cancer when it comes to risk," Anderson said.
No chance that's "eight or more glasses" in one sitting, is there?
Well this is hardly the news I want to hear after finding out The Wife got me tickets to Game 3 of the NLCS this Saturday. Baseball without beer? That's like...Starsky without Hutch, or Itchy without Scratchy, or driving in Houston without seeing a pickup truck sporting those fake testicles hanging from its trailer hitch.
Goddammit, it's not natural.
Patients who drank eight or more glasses of beer or stronger beverages per week were more than twice as likely to have precancers or full-blown cancers than those who drank less or who chose wine instead.
Earlier studies have suggested that alcohol has a powerful effect on the colon and increases the likelihood of cancer development because of the increased amount of aldehyde, a noxious compound that forms as alcohol is processed.
[...]
Wine contains a significant amount of alcohol, up to 12 percent or more by volume in some vintages. Still, the "pernicious effect" was not evident in red-wine drinkers, he said.He and his colleagues found that red-wine drinkers who consumed between one and eight glasses of red wine per week experienced a decreased risk of colorectal polyps and cancers.
Anderson attributed the difference to high levels of natural antioxidants.
So if I drink eight glasses of wine a week in addition to the beer it'll all even out, right?
Feh. I've given up enough bad habits.
Surprise. Why don't we just stop all this testing, declare that everything gives you cancer, and party till we drop dead? It'd be a lot more enjoyable.
We all saw Clerks. This guy really reminds me of the anti-smoking advocate who turns out to be a gum salesman.
Alcohol is alcohol. Whatever else might be around it malt extract and hops, grape juice, or fruit loops. Eight glasses of wine will make just as much aldehyde as eight beers or two of Seadog's martini's. I'm willing to entertain that the antioxidants and other healthy componenets of wine may have some mitigating effect. I find complete removal of all harmful effects of alcohol comnsumption to be unlikely.
Nah, in a few weeks, we're going to find out that Anderson's real last name is Mondavi or Berringer.
There's only one answer, and that's to make sure that you throw up before the beer has a chance to reach your colon.
Drink Till You Puke: It's Good For You!
I'd rather die from having too much fun than from not enough. I don't have sex cause it's good for my cardiovascular system.
Why can't we just enjoy life anymore. Jesus, I grew up eating hotdogs, bologna and other supposedly noxious foods and I'm 180 years old.
I think that you can probably just even out your odds by drinking a bottle of wine a week along with the 8+ of beer or other alcoholic beverages. What is the equivalency between beverages? If I remember the TABC class I took way back when I was waiting tables, 1 oz of alcoholic spirits = 1 12 oz beer = 1 glass of wine. That means I am screwed, because that 3-4 oz martini I usually have after work everyday is going to add up. It really does help to take the edge off the day though. Wait another 6-months and another 'scientific' study will find out that just the opposite is true anyway.