Top RI Doctor Philip Chan Discusses Links Between Alcohol and Health Risks
Top RI Doctor Philip Chan Discusses Links Between Alcohol and Health Risks
He is the first to admit he enjoys a beverage or two.
However, Dr. Chan says the science is pretty clear about the risk.
“Alcohol really contributes to hundreds of thousands of deaths a year, and the reason why the Surgeon General came out [recently] to talk about alcohol is because of the clear and convincing evidence that alcohol really does contribute to disease and specifically cancers,” said Dr. Chan.
Outgoing U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory citing scientific studies linking alcoholic beverages and an increased risk of at least seven cancers.
Weighing the Different Research
Over the past few decades, studies have claimed some health benefits of drinking certain types of alcohol. Mayo Clinic posts to its website the benefits of red wine: “Red wine, in limited amounts, has long been thought of as healthy for the heart. The alcohol and certain substances in red wine called antioxidants may help prevent coronary artery disease, the condition that leads to heart attacks."
Dr. Chan warns to limit consumption.
“The data still is a little bit unclear in terms of health risk and benefits, so it's clear that alcohol does have some cardiovascular benefit — the studies have been pretty clear over time that for people that drink moderately and so that's in men that's no more than two drinks a day and in women, it's no more than one drink a day,” said Dr. Chan.
“It’s clear that there is some cardiovascular benefit, however. We do know that that's balanced against the risk of cancer for folks that drink, and there are multiple cancers that alcohol contributes to, even in people that moderately drink, you can see increased risk of cancers, specifically breast cancer, throat cancer, mouth cancer,” said Dr. Chan.
“For people that drink more than moderately, so that's more than one or two drinks, you really start to see the risk of other cancers, especially liver cancer, colon cancer, esophageal cancer, you really see the risk of those cancers start to increase significantly,” he added.
“I Love Wine” and Why Do Europeans Seem to Have the Right Balance
For Dr. Chan, an admitted consumer of alcohol and especially wine, he says finding the right balance is critical.
When asked why Europeans appear to have a better balance, Chan offered the following.
“I love red wine. I love white wine too. I really do love wine," said Chan. "I think that this is such a complicated issue to study because if you look at the Europeans, a lot of the European lifestyle there's a lot of walking, it's very active, you're cooking with olive oil, eating a lot of fish and vegetables,etc. so it's really tough to disentangle how much alcohol contributes to health benefits versus all the other lifestyle modifications."
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE TO HEAR THE FULL INTERVIEW AND HIS GUIDANCE ON CONSUMING ALCOHOL
EDITOR'S NOTE: In one part of the interview, Dr. Chan mistates daily consumption -- an acceptable amount is two glasses of wine in a day, not in an hour.
Dr. Chan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and School of Public Health at Brown University. He has over a decade of experience working in public health and clinical research including as a consultant for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where he has assisted in writing national guidelines.