Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New genetic study confirms that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer

ndph.ox.ac.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 91 posts

Re: New genetic study confirms that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer

#41

Post by tmalsburg2 »

dsq wrote: post #28

Comparing Islamic societies (alcohol forbidden) with others should be a good basis for research. Also, non Islamic sub cultures in Islamic countries (Copts in Egypt, Maronites in Lebanon).

Causal inference is unfortunately not that simple. If you find differences in cancer rates, it could be due to alcohol consumption or any number of other factors that differ between Islamic societies and other societies. You can try to control those differences statistically but since the set of possible differences is pretty much open-ended, it’s incredibly difficult to say the least.

Re: New genetic study confirms that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer

#42

Post by thret »

dsq wrote: post #28

Comparing Islamic societies (alcohol forbidden) with others should be a good basis for research. Also, non Islamic sub cultures in Islamic countries (Copts in Egypt, Maronites in Lebanon).

Not really, because they are more likely to lie about how much alcohol and or drugs they take. I have lived in two Muslim countries now and I don't know any Muslims who don't drink in private. I doubt they'd admit to it on a survey though.

Re: New genetic study confirms that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer

#43

Post by asimpletune »

jb1991 wrote: post #38
1penny42cents wrote: post #12

> it has been difficult to establish whether alcohol directly causes cancer, or if it is linked to possible confounding factors (such as smoking and diet) that could generate biased results. > It was also unclear whether alcohol is linked to other types of cancer, including lung and stomach cancers. If smoking was a confounding variable, shouldn't we see an increased risk of smoking-related cancers?

I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not, but we certainly do see an increase in lung cancer among people who smoke regularly.

He was saying that there should be an increased % of smoking-related cancers among people who drink, due to smoking smoking being a confounding factor when trying to determine causality with alcohol-related cancers.

I.e. People who drink, smoke.

Re: New genetic study confirms that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer

#44

Post by shadowofneptune »

dsq wrote: post #28

Comparing Islamic societies (alcohol forbidden) with others should be a good basis for research. Also, non Islamic sub cultures in Islamic countries (Copts in Egypt, Maronites in Lebanon).

Lebanon has a drinking culture, as does Turkey, Syria, etc., so that's not really the best example. Drinks such as anise-based spirits are popular across that part of the Mediterranean.

http://www.lpalebanon.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Prevale...

In this study, rate of alcohol abuse is lower in Muslims than Druze or Christians, but the rate of alcohol dependence or alcohol use disorder wasn't too different.

Re: New genetic study confirms that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer

#45

Post by inawarminister »

thret wrote: post #42
dsq wrote: post #28

Comparing Islamic societies (alcohol forbidden) with others should be a good basis for research. Also, non Islamic sub cultures in Islamic countries (Copts in Egypt, Maronites in Lebanon).

Not really, because they are more likely to lie about how much alcohol and or drugs they take. I have lived in two Muslim countries now and I don't know any Muslims who don't drink in private. I doubt they'd admit to it on a survey though.

You should know me then. No drugs, no alcohol. Only caffeine which I am trying to downregulate with. Though perhaps you should have tried in the mosque rather than the bar :)

Re: New genetic study confirms that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer

#47

Post by [deleted] »

jb1991 wrote: post #37
Zenst wrote: post #24

This would be born out with a lower average cancer rate in populations that do not drink alcohol. So one would expect cultures that do not of forbid drinking would have a lower rate of cancer. Alas it is hard to nail down that date due to various factors and types of cancer and equally, associated health care. So a high cancer death rate in one country compared to another, maybe due to health care as well, so really…

I’ve often heard it mentioned that the church of Latter Day Saints is a religious culture that abstain from alcohol and caffeine, and their life expectancy is many years longer than average, by a decade or so, even when they live amongst others in the same country and otherwise have similar environmental influences.

[deleted]

Re: New genetic study confirms that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer

#49

Post by dfgdfgasqqw »

ypcx wrote: post #48

Life (aging) is a direct cause of cancer. And we can't change that unless we have some sort of nanobots constantly repairing DNA damage in every single cell of our body.

How's that related to this story? One outcome might have multiple factors affecting its probability of ocurrence. Just because you can't change life doesn't mean you can't stop alcohol. Life isn't 1 and 0 dude.

Re: New genetic study confirms that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer

#50

Post by bigodbiel »

tejtm wrote: post #21
mateo1 wrote: post #9

The only thing I learned from this study is that the 20% of the Chinese can't drink.

and that is selection. Chinese were first to rely on fermented grains to be food at least 6k years ago. good strategy -- there are time when every calorie you can get counts. bad strategy -- its addictive and toxic. solution? favor those who could consume it to avoid starvation, but would not touch it otherwise because it is so unpleasant (instant hangover). Meanwhile brewing alcohol only started maybe 3k years ago i…

Wait, so are you saying all the Chinese alcoholics drove themselves to extinction?
Post reply on HN