Alcohol Consumption Linked to Breast Cancer By Mrs Vera West

Having a nodding awareness of the science could save one’s life. Thus, many women like to drink alcohol. Yet for some time there has been concerned about alcohol causing breast cancer, with statistics giving support. Yet for a hypothesis to become alive a causal mechanism is needed. Now, one recent attempt to explain this alcohol-cancer connection has been given which is summarised as follows: “Alcohol damages muscle cells, causing them to release excessive phosphate into the circulating blood serum. If the excess phosphorus is not eliminated through the kidneys, phosphorus accumulates in tissues, including the breasts, and causes cells to overgrow and produce tumors.” Does this mechanism also operate in men, perhaps causing prostate cancer?

My mother and grandmother, back in the day, were keen supporters of the temperance movement, which proclaimed the health and moral dangers of alcohol consumption. Alcohol is bad enough for men, but is a real danger for women.

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/alcohol-linked-to-breast-cancer-78bbd91d

“Many women are not aware that alcohol intake is associated with increased risk of breast cancer, but the mechanism linking alcohol to breast cancer and other cancers has not been established. In an article published June 18, 2023 in the Journal of Applied Toxicology, researchers from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, proposed a novel explanation for alcohol’s link with breast cancer: Breast cancer, alcohol, and phosphate toxicity. As the lead author of the article, I have published over a dozen other articles linking the growth of tumors to phosphate toxicity in the tumor microenvironment, caused by excessive accumulation of the dietary mineral phosphorus.

My latest article explains how phosphate toxicity potentially connects the evidence linking alcohol and breast cancer. Alcohol damages muscle cells, causing them to release excessive phosphate into the circulating blood serum. If the excess phosphorus is not eliminated through the kidneys, phosphorus accumulates in tissues, including the breasts, and causes cells to overgrow and produce tumors.

https://analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jat.4504

“Abstract

Alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, even at low alcohol intake levels, but public awareness of the breast cancer risk associated with alcohol intake is low. Furthermore, the causative mechanisms underlying alcohol's association with breast cancer are unknown. The present theoretical paper uses a modified grounded theory method to review the research literature and propose that alcohol's association with breast cancer is mediated by phosphate toxicity, the accumulation of excess inorganic phosphate in body tissue. Serum levels of inorganic phosphate are regulated through a network of hormones released from the bone, kidneys, parathyroid glands, and intestines. Alcohol burdens renal function, which may disturb the regulation of inorganic phosphate, impair phosphate excretion, and increase phosphate toxicity. In addition to causing cellular dehydration, alcohol is an etiologic factor in nontraumatic rhabdomyolysis, which ruptures cell membranes and releases inorganic phosphate into the serum, leading to hyperphosphatemia. Phosphate toxicity is also associated with tumorigenesis, as high levels of inorganic phosphate within the tumor microenvironment activate cell signaling pathways and promote cancer cell growth. Furthermore, phosphate toxicity potentially links cancer and kidney disease in onco-nephrology. Insights into the mediating role of phosphate toxicity may lead to future research and interventions that raise public health awareness of breast cancer risk and alcohol consumption.”