Keep yourself protected, lay off the booze

A recent study shows that adolescent girls and young women who regularly consume alcohol have a higher risk of benign breast disease in their 20s, which is a determining factor in breast cancer development.

The “Prospective Study of Adolescent Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Benign Breast Disease in Young Women” was published in the May issue of Pediatrics, and it consisted of 16 to 23 year old girls answering a series of questions regarding alcohol use, and then about any diagnoses for benign breast disease, two or more years later.

These bottles may do more than you realize

Participants were all part of the Growing Up today Study of more than 9,000 girls from all 50 states, who are all daughters of Nurses’ Health Study II participants. The study began in 1996 by Brigham  Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The reuslts indicated that girls who drank six to seven days per week had five times the risk of biopsy-confirmed benign breast disease as participants who never drank, while young ladies who drank three to five times a week had three times the risk.

These correlations heighten the concern since alcohol intake by college students has recently increased at a drastic pace. Some suggest working to delay the onset of blood alcohol consumption and reducing the amount consumed may work to prevent some instances of benign breast disease, and breast cancer.