Dr. Andrew Huang doesn’t think a lot of people are aware of the connection between cancer and alcohol.
“I think that most people, they associate alcohol with traffic accidents or liver damage or impaired thinking, but we don't really think about cancer from alcohol,” said Huang, a Board-Certified Radiation Oncologist at Aspirus Cancer Care – Rhinelander, James Beck Cancer Center.
The U.S. Surgeon General is recommending warning labels be put on alcohol to let people know the risk of getting cancer by consuming it.
Alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States.
Huang thinks putting a label on alcohol letting people know of that risk is a good start, but he’d like to see it go further.
The CDC estimates 178,000 people die from excessive drinking each year. Alcohol-related cancers only make up about 9% of those deaths.
“It felt silly to me that we're going to put a label on alcohol about a cancer risk, but we're not putting a label about its liver damage or its heart damage or pancreatic damage, nerve damage, you know, acute poisoning,” said Huang.
Because of all the health risks associated with alcohol, Huang says the official recommendation is to drink zero alcohol.
“Obviously that's something that's very difficult in today's society, and so current guidelines say try to limit to two drinks for men a day and limit to one drink a day for women,” said Huang.
Huang says it’s easy for him to have that conversation to cut alcohol with his patients because all of his patients have cancer and are motivated to change their lifestyle.
He does understand that can be a challenging conversation to have otherwise, especially in places like Wisconsin where alcohol is a part of the culture.
“I think that it can create an adversarial or condescending or judgmental relationship with the people that you're talking to. So those kind of conversations are probably best for devoted, caring family member or friends, because I think it comes to a different place that when people talk to each other about excessive drinking,” said Huang.
Eliminating alcohol is just one way you can reduce your risk for cancer.
Wearing sunscreen, avoiding nicotine, and getting the HPV vaccine can also help.
Huang says HPV related head and neck cancers are on the rise in the U.S.
“So cancers of the tonsils or the face of the tongue and a posterior pharynx, and this is coming from spread of this HPV virus, human papillomavirus, just from sexual activity,” said Huang. “We have better and better vaccines that immunize people against more and more variants of the human papillomavirus. That's something that I think is going to be a really big driver in reducing head and neck and cervical cancers in the upcoming future.”
Huang says cancer caused by radon gas is a big one in Wisconsin.
One in ten homes in the state have elevated levels. He recommends getting your home tested and getting a RADON mitigation system if necessary.
Support for local health coverage on WXPR is brought to you in part by a grant from the Rhinelander Health Foundation.
