If I stop drinking does that decrease risk of cancer?
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?
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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]
Oh great, another thing to be anxious about. My anxiety is going so out of control it's going meta now.
Have a drink and relax.
Joey: Monica. Relax. Go get a beer.
Monica: I don't want a beer!
Joey: Who said it was for you?
Joey: Monica. Relax. Go get a beer.
Monica: I don't want a beer!
Joey: Who said it was for you?
Have you ever had chest pain because of anxiety...and then the chest pain itself gives you anxiety about having chest pain?? Lmao
How does anxiety cause cancer?
Cortisol, the "stress hormone", has been shown to possibly accelerate cancer development.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9216328/
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....
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.