A study suggests that a small glass of white wine a day could increase the risk of skin cancer by 13 percent. Drinking alcohol is associated with higher rates of invasive melanoma and white wine carries the greatest risk. According to a research, those who drank a glass and a half of wine a day increased the risk of developing melanomas on the torso - a rare site of skin cancer - by up to 73 percent compared with non-drinkers.
Drinking White Wine Might Increase Risk Of Melanoma
As reported by the CBS New York, A new study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention analyzed health records of more than 200,000 white people and found that just one drink of alcohol a day raised the risk of melanoma by 13 percent, but only if the alcohol was white wine. “I would have expected both red and white wines to have very similar findings,” said Dr. Hooman Khorasani, of Mount Sinai Health System.
While both red and white wine may have similar amounts of pre-existing acetaldehyde, the antioxidants in red wine may offset the risks. Acetaldehyde occurs naturally in coffee, bread, and ripe fruit and is produced by plants. The clinical and biological significance of these findings remains to be determined, but for individuals with other strong risk factors for melanoma, counseling regarding alcohol should be advice.
According to Daily Mail, Study author Professor Eunyoung Cho, from Brown University in the US, said: "It was surprising that white wine was the only drink independently associated with increased risk of melanoma. The reason for the association is unknown. However, research has shown that some wine has somewhat higher levels of pre-existing acetaldehyde than beer or spirits."
What is Melanoma?
As described by the American Cancer Society, melanoma is less common but more serious than other types of skin cancer. Melanomas are usually brown or black but can appear pink, tan, or even white. If melanoma is recognized and treated early, it is almost always curable, but if it is not, cancer can advance and spread to other parts of the body, where it becomes hard to treat and can be fatal.
Melanoma most dangerous form of skin cancer, these cancerous growths develop when unrepaired DNA damage to skin cells triggers mutations that lead the skin cells to multiply rapidly and form malignant tumors. These tumors originate in the pigment-producing melanocytes in the basal layer of the epidermis. Melanomas often resemble moles; some develop from moles.
