just-drinks authors and correspondents

Columns by International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research

Critiques from the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research

The International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research hosts forums that look at research conducted around the world on the relationship between alcohol consumption and health.

Articles by International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research

How great is the risk of prostate cancer from alcohol consumption? - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 192 12 September 2016

Scientific research on the association of alcohol consumption with the risk of prostate cancer has been mixed.

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A step forward in the research of alcohol's effects on health and disease? - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 191 25 August 2016

Observational epidemiologic studies relating alcohol consumption to health and disease have been remarkably consistent over many decades: light to moderate alcohol intake is related to improved cardiovascular health and less diabetes, while heavy intake and binge drinking relate primarily to adverse cardiovascular and other disease outcomes.

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Alcohol intake during middle age and later atherosclerosis - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 190 11 August 2016

Carotid artery disease can be estimated by ultrasound from the thickness of the wall of the arteries (recorded as carotid artery intima/medial thickness, cIMT) and by evidence of atherosclerotic plaques within the carotid arteries. The association between alcohol intake and such lesions is unclear, as some studies show a positive association with cIMT and/or plaques while others show no association. 

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The importance of the drinking pattern on wine’s health effects - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 189 26 July 2016

A recent review article appearing in Food & Function, a publication of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK, presents a summary of evidence-based scientific data relating the moderate consumption of wine and other alcoholic beverages to health.

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Pulling apart poor research linking alcohol consumption and cancer - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 188 28 June 2016

Previous scientific research has shown that heavy alcohol consumption is a major risk factor for upper aero-digestive cancers, and even light drinking increases slightly the risk of breast cancer in women. A recent study is based on a very small number of cases of cancer in New Zealand, tabulated separately for Maori and non-Maori subjects. The research applies estimates of alcohol effects from other population-based studies.

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Is there a link between alcohol and skin cancer? - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 187 14 June 2016

Skin cancers, whether melanoma, basal cell, or squamous cell, are all increased by ultra-violet rays of the sun, and such cancers are much more common in areas of the world with more sun exposure. The risk of such cancers, however, is higher among individuals reporting excessive tanning. A recent study was undertaken to judge the relation between alcohol consumption and the risk of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), an association that is unclear from earlier research.

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Alcohol consumption and the risk of breast cancer and heart disease - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 186 19 May 2016

A large study from Denmark was designed to test the hypothesis that women who increase their alcohol intake over a five-year period have a higher risk of breast cancer and a lower risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) compared with women who exhibit a stable alcohol intake.

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Can consuming alcohol lead to the development of a heart condition? - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 185 28 April 2016

A recent study in Denmark tested the hypothesis that alcohol consumption, both observational (self-reported) and estimated by genetic instruments, is associated with the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) and to determine whether people with high cardiovascular risk are more sensitive towards alcohol than people with low risk.

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The link between alcohol consumption and pancreatic cancer - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 184 4 April 2016

The ISFAR reviewed a meta-analysis based on data from more than 4m subjects in prospective cohort studies, among whom 11,846 incident cases of pancreatic cancer were diagnosed.

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When research gets it wrong - An unusual analysis of the association of alcohol consumption with mortality - International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research Critique 183 24 March 2016

The stated purpose of this new analysis was to determine whether misclassifying former and occasional drinkers as abstainers and other potentially-confounding study characteristics underlie observed positive health outcomes for low volume drinkers in prospective studies of mortality.