I’ve been drinking for 7 years. Typicall I’ve only drank 3-4 drinks a year. If I stop drinking now, would that help decrease chances of cancer? If it does will it take a long time?

  • nikt@lemmy.ca
    1053·
    1 year ago

    Don’t take this the wrong way, but if you’re worried about getting cancer from 3-4 drinks per year, it sounds like you might be dealing with a fair bit of anxiety.

    Stress caused by anxiety is bad for your health and a possible cancer risk, and almost certainly worse for you than 3-4 drinks a year. I don’t want you to now be anxious about your anxiety, but this might be a good thing to focus on to improve your general quality of life (and possibly reduce your cancer risk in the process).

    You could start by talking to a doctor or other medical professional about it, or try finding a therapist in your area. The therapist search on https://www.psychologytoday.com/ is a good place to look, or try an online service like Better Help.

    [edit: corrected overstatement about stress being a major cancer risk]

    • CALIGVLA@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      321·
      1 year ago

      Stress caused by anxiety is a major cancer risk, definitely much more so than 3-4 drinks a year.

      Oh great, another thing to be anxious about. My anxiety is going so out of control it’s going meta now.

        • Devi@kbin.social
          1·
          1 year ago

          So if you have cancer, the important thing is not to be worried at all about the horrific illness and potential death that you’re facing. Simple…

      • nikt@lemmy.ca
        7·
        1 year ago

        Fair question, and looks like I overstated that link.

        Chronic stress affects your immune system (via cortisol, long term inflammation) and that is no bueno for all sorts of health outcomes, including likely making it harder to fight off tumours.

        But to my surprise, there doesn’t actually seem to be solid evidence of a causal link between stress and increased risk of developing cancer.