Red wine carries same breast cancer risk as white wine

Drinking moderate amounts of any kind of alcohol (including wine, beer, and liquor) is associated with a slightly increased breast cancer risk.

Originally it was believed that if you drank red wine rather than other alcoholic beverages that you would not be at as much of a risk for breast cancer. After the conclusion of a new study, it gets rid of any hope that red wine is less likely than other alcohol-containing drinks to increase breast cancer risks, or that it might even protect against the disease.

"If a woman chooses red wine, she should do so because she likes the flavor, not because she thinks doing so will reduce her breast cancer risk," said Polly A. Newcomb of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington, who led the research. "It might be good for other things, but it definitely is not conferring any protection against breast cancer."

To find out if this was true, the researchers looked at 6,327 women with breast cancer and 7,558 women who did not have a cancer diagnosis. Risk rose with the amount of alcohol consumed, no matter whether it was wine, beer or liquor. The heaviest drinkers -- women who reported having 14 or more drinks a week -- were 24 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than nondrinkers.

"The message is pretty simple," Allen said. "Moderate drinking increases breast cancer risk, and it seems that the more you drink the higher the risk."

So I hate to break the news to all the woman out their who might be reading this before they hit up the parties during spring break but it is now proven fact that the more you drink the more likely you are to get breast cancer.

On the plus side here are 5 Things That Could Cut Your Breast Cancer Risk
1. Limit yourself to two or three alcoholic drinks a week
2. Exercise at least three times a week (more often is even better)
3. Maintain your body weight, or lose weight if you're overweight
4. Do a monthly breast self-exam
5. Have a mammogram once a year after 40