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Our culture, broad and profound, especially for wine culture, has flourished for thousands of years.
The ancients bid farewell to old friends and wanted to drink, "Take wine as a song, what is life?" ”
Official frustration, huaicai does not meet, wine will not be absent, drink alone under the moon, "a pot of wine between flowers, drink alone without blind dates." ”
When you meet your friends, the wine will be icing on the cake, "Lanling wine tulips, jade bowls filled with amber light." ”
From ancient times to the present, for thousands of years, many people are inseparable from "wine".
Many people even say that drinking a little wine before going to bed helps sleep and prolongs life.
However, in 2016, a paper published in the journal Lancet caught everyone's attention and subverted the traditional ideas of many people. (Related reading: persuade people to drink, harm people are not shallow| the lancet said: don't drink a drop of wine..... ）
The truth is that even a drop of alcohol can lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
In August, another study was published in The Lancet Oncology, a sub-publication of Lancet, which analyzed the causal relationship between cancer and alcohol consumption.
It was found that drinking alcohol leads to an increased global cancer burden, and a little bit of drinking can also affect, and there are obvious racial differences.
Let's take a look!
Lancet sub-issue: Drinking alcohol leads to an increased risk of cancer
On July 13, 2021, The Lancet published a study in the sub-journal Oncology that investigated the relationship between alcohol consumption and cancer in the global population and found that more than 740,000 people in all new cancer cases in 2020 were attributed to alcohol consumption.
The researchers calculated the cancer burden attributable to alcohol by using cancer incidence in 2020, recent relative risk estimates in the scientific literature, and data on alcohol consumption from multiple sources.
By assuming a 10-year incubation period between alcohol exposure and cancer diagnosis, the researchers first obtained an estimate of the subjects' alcohol consumption in 2010 from the Global Information System on Alcohol and Health.
The estimated alcohol consumption was then converted into grams of alcohol per day; the incidence of cancer ten years later was then investigated.
The results found that while heavy drinking (more than two glasses of alcohol per day, > around 60 grams) accounted for the largest share of the cancer risk burden (accounting for 86% of the total number of cancer cases caused by alcohol consumption).
But among people with mild and moderate alcohol consumption, the risk burden still accounts for one-seventh of alcohol-inducing carcinogenic cases and has generated more than 100,000 new cancer cases worldwide.
In addition, globally, an estimated 741,300 (95% UI558–951,200; PAF 4.1% [3.1-5.3]) of all new cancer cases in 2020 are attributable to alcohol consumption.
Moreover, among men, there were 568,700 (76.7%; 95% UI 422,500–731,100; PAF 6.1% [4.6–7.9]) cases of alcohol-induced cancer, compared with 172,600 among women.
In addition, in East, Central and Eastern European countries such as Mongolia, China, Moldova and Romania, the highest PAF of all new cancer cases observed.
Of the 741,300 cases, moderate alcohol consumption (103,100 (13.9%; 95% UI82,600–207,2000) per day by alcohol consumption was moderately alcohol-induced;
Dangerous alcohol consumption (20–60 g/day) resulted in 291,800 (39.4%; 227,700–333,100) cases, and heavy drinking (> 60 g per day) resulted in 346,400 cases.
The research team also found that small amounts of alcohol can also induce tumors, with about 14 percent of tumor patients causing them to drink small amounts of alcohol.
Moderate and heavy alcohol consumption resulted in tumors in 39.4% and 46.7% of patients, respectively.
It can be seen from this that the traditional concept of "moderate drinking" is not necessarily safe, or there is a certain risk of carcinogenicity.
Alcohol metabolizes poisons and causes cancer
Children know that regular drinking is harmful to health.
The more alcohol a person drinks, the higher the risk of alcohol-related cancers.
So, how can it cause cancer? The researchers hypothesize that alcohol may increase a person's risk of cancer in a number of ways, such as:
Ethanol is metabolized to produce acetaldehyde
Ethanol in alcohol is metabolized (broken down) to acetaldehyde, which is a toxic chemical that may be a human carcinogen;
In addition, acetaldehyde can damage the body's DNA and proteins, resulting in an increased risk of cancer.
Alcohol metabolism processes that produce reactive oxygen species
In addition, researchers believe that during alcohol metabolism, reactive oxygen species (chemically active molecules containing oxygen) may also be produced, which will destroy DNA, proteins and lipids in the human body through the oxidation process.
Weakens the body's metabolic capacity
In addition, a large amount of alcohol is metabolized by the liver, which also damages the liver and weakens the body's ability to break down and absorb various nutrients, including vitamin A; nutrients in complex vitamin B, such as folic acid; vitamin C; Vitamin D ; Vitamin E ; and carotenoids and so on.
Causes an increase in the level of estrogen in the blood
Estrogen is a sex hormone associated with the risk of breast cancer. If estrogen levels are too high, the risk of cancer also increases.
A new study has found that when estrogen levels rise, the brain's reward centers are more adapted to the pleasurable effects of alcohol, which may be the basis for the development of addiction in women, leading to a vicious cycle.
In addition, in the process of alcoholic fermentation and production, it is likely to introduce a variety of carcinogenic pollutants, such as nitrosamines, asbestos fibers, phenols and hydrocarbons.
Moreover, there are many inferior liquors on the market now, many mixed with water, and many other chemical drugs, which are harmful to health for a long time.
Smoking and drinking alcohol are carried out at the same time, and the risk of carcinogenesis increases
Many people drink alcohol and like to have two cigarettes at the same time.
Epidemiological studies have shown that people who smoke and drink alcohol at the same time have a much higher risk of oral, throat, and esophageal cancers than people who use alcohol or tobacco alone.
At the same time, the risk of cancer is also multiplied by smoking and drinking.
Therefore, at present, society has been advocating, do not smoke, do not (less) drink.
ADH/ALDH gene, which affects the rate of alcohol metabolism
So, the speed at which the human body metabolizes alcohol is generally determined by what genes?
The process of alcohol metabolism involves three groups of enzymes:
Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), which is responsible for oxidizing alcohol ( i.e. ethanol ) to acetaldehyde.
Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which is responsible for oxidizing acetaldehyde to acetic acid.
Cytochrome P4502E1 (CYP2E1), a protein that is part of the microsomal ethanol oxidation system (MEOS), is primarily involved in alcohol metabolism after long-term alcohol consumption.
(Gene fragment of CYP2E1 enzyme)
Among these enzymes, there are genetic variants:
Among them, the ADH1B and ADH1C genes in the seven genes encoding the ADH enzyme will show genetic polymorphisms, which are present in different variants of activity (i.e., alleles), which can easily lead to differences in the activity of the ADH molecules they encode, resulting in different rates of ethanol oxidation into acetaldehyde, and then producing different amounts of acetaldehyde.
For example, people with the highly active ADH1B*2 allele can quickly convert ethanol to acetaldehyde.
This can lead to the accumulation of acetaldehyde after drinking alcohol and produce toxic side effects such as sweating, increased heart rate, nausea, vomiting, and facial flushing.
In addition, aldh2 enzyme is the most important enzyme in the conversion of acetaldehyde to acetic acid, and there are two alleles.
One of them is extremely low in activity, which can easily lead to the accumulation of acetaldehyde after drinking alcohol, increasing the risk of poisoning.
Genetic variations in this gene are typical in a large proportion of Japanese and other East Asians, but the ADH1B*2 allele is rarely found in Caucasian populations.
Key Skinny Dragon said
Those who believe that "moderate drinking" is healthy are people who love to drink.
Everyone likes to make excuses for their habits, and people who love to eat carbs like videos that recommend eating carbs.
People who love meat, like to read our articles, hahaha.
Today, the latest data tells us that even small amounts of alcohol may be at risk.
However, occasionally drink a little wine, do not have to be too nervous, it is recommended not to smoke while drinking, because the harm will be greater.