HTW #153

April is Alcohol Awareness Month. It is important to monitor alcohol intake for many reasons. Too much alcohol can be harmful to your physical and emotional health, as well as negatively impact those around you. As if that weren’t scary enough, new studies are finding associations between alcohol consumption and different types of cancer. Cancers of the mouth and throat are especially more common in alcohol drinkers, and drinkers are at a much higher risk of developing liver cancer. Alcohol can impede the liver’s ability to process and break down other carcinogens, which is another reason it leads to a higher cancer risk. Women who drink are at a much higher risk for breast cancer as well.

In order to protect yourself and limit your cancer risk as much as possible, stick to the recommended alcohol limits. Men should have no more than 2 drinks per day, and women should have no more than 1 drink per day. Even though these limits are listed per day, you cannot ‘save up’ your drinks and just have more on fewer days because this could lead to other health and social problems.