New Link Found Between Alcohol and Cancer
While evidence has been found linking seven different types of cancer to alcohol consumption, new research may have determined how these deadly mutations occur.
A new study, published in Nature, found that consuming alcohol can actually “cause irreversile damage to the DNA in some of our body’s stem cells,” IFLScience.com reported.
The researchers gave diluted alcohol to mice, and then analyzed their chromosomes searching for damage. They found that acetaldehyde, a substance the body produces to break down alcohol, “physically breaks and damages the DNA held within blood stem cells. They found that the chromosomes in the blood stem cells rearranged, and that the DNA sequence was permanently altered.”
“Some cancers develop due to DNA damage in stem cells,” lead study author Professor Ketan Patel said. “While some damage occurs by chance, our findings suggest that drinking alcohol can increase the risk of this damage.”
Read more about this research here.
