A new global study has found that lifestyle risk factors such as alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking are important risk factors for bowel cancer. Researchers have shown that people who consume the largest quantities of alcohol (equivalent to > 7 drinks per week) have 60% greater risk of developing the cancer, compared with non-drinkers.

Smoking, obesity and diabetes were also associated with a 20% greater risk of developing bowel cancer - the same risk linked with consuming high intakes of red and processed meat.

Approximately one million new cases of bowel (colorectal) cancer are diagnosed worldwide each year, and more than half a million people die from this type of cancer. In Australia alone, it is the most commonly occurring cancer with more than 12,000 new cases diagnosed each year.

According to lead researcher Associate Professor Rachel Huxley at The George Institute, the most startling finding of this study was, "The strong, and largely, unknown association between high intakes of alcoholic beverages with risk of colorectal cancer. Most people probably know that being overweight and having poor dietary habits are risk factors for the disease, but most are probably unaware that other lifestyle risk factors such as alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking and diabetes are also important culprits."

Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council recommend individuals shouldn't be drinking more than two standard drinks per day.

On a positive note, researchers also demonstrated that physical activity lowered an individual's risk of the disease but surprisingly, there was little evidence to indicate that high intakes of fruit and vegetables were protective against bowel cancer.

"These findings strongly suggest that a large proportion of colorectal cancer cases could potentially be avoided by making relatively modest lifestyle adjustments such as drinking less, quitting smoking, eating hea
'/>"/>

• AIDS/HIV
• Bioinformatics
• Biotechnology
• Biochemistry
• Cancer
• Cell Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology
• Environment
• Evolution
• Food Technology
• Gene
• Genetics
• Genomics
• Health/Medicine
• Immunology
• Microarray
• Microbiology
• Molecular
• Marine Biology
• Nanobiotechnology
• Neurobiology
• Plant Sciences
• Stem Cell
• Systems Biology
• Virus
• Women Health

• Abortion
• Aches
• ADHD
• Addiction
• Alcohol
• Allergy
• Alternative Medicine
• Alzheimer's Dementia
• Anxiety/Stress
• Arthritis
• Autism
• Bacteria
• Blood
• Bird Flu/Avian Flu
• Bones
• Breast Cancer
• Cancer
• Cardiovascular
• Cervical Cancer
• Chikungunya
• Cholesterol
• Clinical Trials
• Colorectal Cancer
• Conferences
• Crohn's
• Cystic Fibrosis
• Dengue
• Dentistry
• Depression
• Diabetes
• Drug
• Eating Disorders
• Education
• Epilepsy
• Erectile Dysfunction
• Eye Health/Blindness
• Fertility
• Flu/Cold
• GastroIntestinal
• Genetics
• Gout
• Headache/Migraine
• Hearing/Deafness
• HIV/AIDS
• Huntington's Disease
• Hypertension
• Immune System/Vaccines
• Insurance
• Infectious Diseases
• Irritable-Bowel Syndrome
• Internet
• Leukemia
• Lifestyle
• Liver Disease/Hepatitis
• Lung Cancer
• Lupus
• Mad Cow Disease
• Medical Devices
• Medical Students/Training
• Medicare/Medicaid
• Medico
• Men's health
• Mental Health
• MRI/Ultrasound
• MRSA/Drug Resistance
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Muscular Dystrophy
• Neurology
• Nursing
• Nutrition/Diet
• Obesity/Weight Loss
• Pain/Anesthetics
• Parkinson's Disease
• Pediatrics/Children's Health
• Pharma/Biotech Industry
• Pharmacy/Pharmacists
• Pregnancy
• Premature
• Prostate
• Psychology/Psychiatry
• Rehabilitation
• Respiratory/Asthma
• SARS
• Schizophrenia
• Seniors/Aging
• Sexual Health
• Sleep/Sleep Disorders
• Smoking
• Statins
• Stem Cell Research
• Stroke
• Surgery
• Transplants/Organ Donations
• Viruses
• Water - Air Quality
• Women's Health