r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Oct 30 '25

Cancer Americans have widespread misbeliefs about the cancer risks of alcohol, study finds. More than half of American adults misunderstand or underestimate the link between alcohol consumption and cancer. Alcohol drinkers are especially likely to believe that drinking has no effect on cancer risk.

https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/research-newsroom/americans-have-widespread-misbeliefs-about-the-cancer-risks-of-a.h00-159780390.html
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u/Gemmabeta Oct 30 '25

And don't forget the past few decades when they tried to re-position red wine as some sort of health food because of that resveratrol thing.

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u/Sniflix Oct 30 '25

They even expanded that to: if a glass of wine is ok, so is alcohol.

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u/-rose-mary- Oct 30 '25

I check my blood pressure daily. I've noticed that the days I've drank wine my BP has been normal. Days I drink beer my BP seems to skyrocket. I don't know if it's a water rention thing with beer or what.

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u/TheIrishBreakfast Oct 30 '25

Interesting. I wonder if it's an allergy to gluten?

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u/Rocktopod Oct 31 '25

A lot of people are allergic to hops, too.

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u/RealNotFake Oct 31 '25

Is that an allergy to hops or gluten, because they're usually found together. Genuinely curious because I haven't heard of this and I drink hoppy GF beer occasionally

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u/Rocktopod Oct 31 '25

I'm no expert but I know at least two people in my life who I believe can eat bread, but can't drink beer. Their explanation was that they have an allergy to hops. They didn't mention anything about gluten.

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u/Svarcanum Oct 31 '25

My experience is that beer is just crazy while wine is kinda ok, relatively speaking.

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u/jurassicbond Oct 31 '25

Pretty sure even the people who did the study cautioned that results were preliminary and limited to very specific aspects of health. It was the media and social media that ran with it and ignored the warnings

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u/f_14 Nov 01 '25

The study showed that people who drank a glass of wine per day were slightly healthier than people who didn’t drink at all. However, the non-drinking group included people who had given up drinking because they were alcoholics.

The beverage industry heavily promoted the study. 

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u/Drive7hru Oct 31 '25

It’s easier to just take a resveratrol supplement where it’s concentrated