Thursday 5 March 2009
Wine consumption may be linked to lower risk of esophageal cancer
But people who drink wine are generally different from those who drink beer and liquor, experts noted. They tend to come from higher income brackets and to be more educated, and it is hard for researchers to know whether it is the wine or some other aspect of their lifestyle that protects their health.
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Wine consumption may be linked to lower risk of esophageal cancer
By Roni Caryn Rabin
5 March 2009
While millions of Americans suffer from heartburn and gastric reflux, only a small number develop more severe ailments that can lead to esophageal cancer. Scientists who have been trying to understand what may protect against these conditions have identified an unlikely agent: wine.
Two studies published in this month’s issue of the journal Gastroenterology suggest that people who drink wine, white or red, in moderation are less likely to develop conditions that may lead to esophageal adenocarcinoma, an uncommon cancer that has increased sharply in the United States over the past 30 years.
The reports are particularly surprising because alcohol intake is a well-established risk factor for the other main form of esophageal cancer, squamous cell carcinoma. Researchers warned that the two studies published this month were preliminary and must be confirmed by more intensive research.
In one study, researchers at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, found that drinking one glass of wine a day was associated with a more than 50 percent reduction in the risk of developing Barrett’s esophagus, though there was no reduction in risk among adults who drank liquor or beer.
Barrett’s esophagus, an erosion of the esophageal lining that can be caused by chronic heartburn or acid reflux, increases the odds of developing esophageal adenocarcinoma 30-fold to 40-fold.
In the second study, researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, in Northern Ireland, reported that compared with patients who drank no wine, those drinking one glass of wine or more a month saw a more than 50 percent reduction in the risk of reflux esophagitis, an irritation of the esophagus often caused by chronic heartburn.
Findings from the two studies are consistent with those from an Australian report published in Gastroenterology in December. That study found that drinking wine in moderation was linked to lower risks for both forms of esophageal cancer.
“There is a lot of warranted skepticism about nutritional studies - one shows one thing and one shows something else,” said Douglas Corley, a gastroenterologist and senior author of the Kaiser Permanente study. “But these are the first few studies that have looked at this, and they all find the same thing in three different populations in three different countries.”
But people who drink wine are generally different from those who drink beer and liquor, experts noted. They tend to come from higher income brackets and to be more educated, and it is hard for researchers to know whether it is the wine or some other aspect of their lifestyle that protects their health.
“This is an exploratory study,” said Liam Murray, a senior author of the Irish study and a professor of cancer epidemiology at Queen’s University Belfast, “and my view is that further work needs to be done before we put too much weight on it.”
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