QuestionQUESTION: I am a 57 year-old woman who was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer (no lymph node involvement) eight years ago. I had a mastectomy, and took Tamoxifen for five years. None of my subsequent exams, blood work, or mammograms have shown anything irregular.
My question has to do with something I read lately in an article that was several years old. The article indicated that alcohol apparently increases the chances of cancer (on account of its fostering angiogenesis in any tumors that may occur), and that it is therefore something that people with risk factors for the occurrence or recurrence of cancer should avoid.
I do not know if, after eight years, with my particular history (stage 1, no lymph node involvement), I should consider myself particularly at risk of cancer. The health insurance companies seem to think I'm still at risk, as they charge me more even now than if I had not had the cancer in 2001.
And I am also extremely fond of my ritual of having a glass of wine before dinner three or four times a week. It is a real treat, to me, and I would not give it up lightly. (I do not drink more than that.)
For that reason, I have sought you out to ask you whether prudence requires that I sacrifice my much-valued ritual glass of wine, or whether the danger that that amount of wine may pose is so small that I can prudently ignore it.
Thank you very much for your counsel.
April Moore (btw, my grandparents on my mother's side were from Sweden-- Varmland to be specific)
ANSWER: Well I do not drink at all, but that is my personal choice (like I do not smoke either). But I see no reason why you should give up your ritual! Also the ancestors of the astronaut Buzz Aldrin came from Vaermland - or so he told me some years back in Boulder, Colorado. Also the family of my late brother i law (husband of my late big sister) came from there. My other brothers in law all came from Israel like my wife.
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QUESTION: Thanks very much for getting back to me so promptly.
I'd appreciate it if you could expand a bit on your answer about why you "see no reason" why I should give up my ritual. Does this mean that you don't believe that alcohol has the effect that the article I read --in the journal SCIENCE NEWS, incidentally-- said it has, of helping tumors to strengthen themselves with a supply of blood? Or is it that you think that my history does not represent much of a risk for recurrence of cancer, so that I can consider myself like the people who have never had cancer? Or that the amount of alcohol involved in my ritual is so small that even if I am at risk, and even if alcohol does compound a person's risk, the effect of my several glasses of wine a week is so small as to be negligible?
In other words, I'd appreciate your bringing me in on your thought processes by which you reached that reassuring conclusion.
Thanks again.
ANSWER: Almost anything and everything can be dangerous, it is a matter of dose - even water, you can drown in it. If you take one (1) dry martini per week it does not constitute any danger compared to let us say trying to drink 100 dry martinis in one evening - that would surely kill you and quickly. The same here. One glass of wine 3 to 4 times per week and no more hardly constitutes any danger! When medical texts discuss the dangers of alcohol it is assumed that far more is consumed. I do hope I have been able to explain it. Where from in Vaermland did your grandparents come from?
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QUESTION: Thanks again. I will drink to your health! :)
As for where my forebears came from. I have two grandparents who came from Asarp. And I have a grandfather --who incidentally was born almost 100 years before I was-- who came from Karlskoga.
AnswerThanks! I need it! I recently finished radiation treatment for prostate cancer. Well in that case you are really a true descendant of natives from Vaermland. Ever been there? If not try it! There is a very nice hotel with a spa in Sunne in Vaermland called Selma Lagerloef (Selma Laurelleaf, a prominent Swedish female writer born in Sunne)- shows you how closely related Swedish & English are to each other.
