Details

Published: 26 August 2022

Hits: 1944

These harrowing cancer statistics can actually be good news - Sarah Berry August 24, 2022

Alcohol use is the second leading risk factor.

“People like to think ‘it’s not me, it’s the really heavy drinkers who are at risk’, but cancer risk is absolute,” Pettigrew said. “Every mouthful is a carcinogen in its own right. It’s not like you have to get drunk to get cancer. That’s not readily understood.”

Historically, she says, research suggested people who drank a little were healthier than people who drank nothing or people who drank a lot. “It took researchers a while to figure out that in that ‘drink nothing’ category are a lot of people with illnesses or other kinds of problems that have made them stop drinking. Now we can see every drink increases your risk.”

High body mass index (BMI) came third on the list, both in Australia and globally, according to the study, which looked at data from 204 countries in 2019. Other leading risk factors contributing to 4.45 million deaths (44 per cent of global cancer deaths) included high blood glucose, poor diet, unsafe sex, air pollution and exposure to asbestos.

One of the paper’s authors, Dr Xiaoyue (Luna) Xu, of the University of New South Wales, said there had been a 20 per cent increase in cancer deaths between 2010 and 2019 from lifestyle and environmental factors. Risk from high BMI and high fasting plasma glucose increased the most. “Much work needs to be done to change this,” Xu said.

The work includes supporting people to live a healthy lifestyle and understand its significance in preventing chronic disease, and living longer after being diagnosed with chronic conditions, said Dr David Mizrahi, a research fellow at the University of Sydney’s The Daffodil Centre.

“More support is needed from governments, starting from a young age, to educate communities and support lifelong behaviour change to allow communities to reduce the impact of cancer in their communities,” Mizrahi said.

The leading risk factors contributing to global cancer burden in 2019 were behavioural, whereas metabolic risk factors saw the largest increases between 2010 and 2019. Reducing exposure to these modifiable risk factors would decrease cancer mortality and DALY rates worldwide, and policies should be tailored appropriately to local cancer risk factor burden. (Source: Lancet August 2022)

For complete article 

Also Read

• Alcohol Directly Causes Cancer, New Study Shows
• Raising Awareness of the Link Between Alcohol and Cancer
• Alcohol is one of the biggest risk factors for breast cancer (W.H.O)
• Alcohol consumption and liver, pancreatic, head and neck cancers in Australia: 2017
• No amount of bacon or alcohol is safe, World Cancer Research Fund says
• Teens drink less if they know alcohol causes cancer — but most don’t — Adelaide University and SAHMRI study finds

Details

Published: 24 August 2022

Hits: 1356

Some observational studies demonstrate a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) with light-moderate alcohol intake compared with abstinence or heavy consumption. However, confounding lifestyle factors may explain these patterns. Researchers explored the association between alcohol consumption and CVD using a large genetic databank with 371,463 participants that included blood samples and lifestyle information. They constructed a “genetic instrument” based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with an alcohol use disorder diagnosis and AUDIT-C answers, but independent of other lifestyle factors.* Researchers measured the association between these SNPs and adverse cardiovascular outcomes to minimize confounding and establish a causal relationship.

* Defined as: smoking, body mass index, physical activity, vegetable intake, red meat intake, overall health rating, C-reactive protein level, and total cholesterol level.

Comments: Using a novel method to reduce confounding, this study supports a causal and exponential association between alcohol intake and CVD, beginning at low levels of consumption. These findings suggest that the apparent cardioprotective effects of moderate alcohol consumption found in some observational studies are due to confounding lifestyle factors. Moreover, this study supports the theory that no amount of alcohol is protective against CVD.

For complete research

Also see

• Association between clinically recorded alcohol consumption and initial presentation of 12 cardiovascular diseases: population based cohort study using linked health records
• A new scientific study concludes there is no safe level of drinking alcohol.
• Does moderate drinking really protect against heart disease?
• Dalgarno Institute Website - A Major Industry-Funded Alcohol Study Was Compromised. How Many Others Are Out There?

Details

Published: 17 August 2022

Hits: 1332

A first of its kind study has quantified the secondhand alcohol harm in Australia. It amounts to nearly $20 billion in 2016.
Bystanders bear almost 90% of the costs of harm caused by others’ alcohol use, while the government footed the rest of the bill.

The findings illustrate the strong case for improved alcohol policy solutions in Australia to reduce the alcohol burden on bystanders and improve the lives of all Australians.

The cost of the harm caused to others is about the same as the cost of the harm caused by alcohol users to themselves and to response agencies serving them. When the second-hand harms are added to the direct harms to alcohol users, the total harm due to alcohol is about double that of tobacco.

This brings the total cost of the alcohol burden in Australia to about $40 billion

“The findings make a strong case for an active role of governments in reducing burdens that [alcohol use] causes to non-users or bystanders, including active intervention in alcohol markets to reduce these externalities,” (as per La Trobe University News.)   Dr. Jason Jiang, Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University

 

For complete research

Details

Published: 04 August 2022

Hits: 1496

Indigenous Call for a Return of Alcohol Bans

AMOS AIKMAN

The Northern Territory government’s refusal to maintain Intervention-era grog bans is undermining one of its own best measures for stopping alcohol-fuelled violence, say experts who have urged the government to rethink.

The scheme has been credited with a swift drop in alcohol fuelled and domestic violence in places such as Alice Springs.

Allowing grog bans to lapse in about 400 communities and outstations means people living there can buy booze again.

Donna Ah Chee, head of the health service Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, says her organisation’s clinics have been struggling to cope with more intoxicated patients on top of an already-crippling pandemic burden, since the alcohol rules changed on July 17.

The emergency response (dubbed the Intervention) was opposed by many Indigenous groups that were concerned about discriminatory policy. Ironically, some of those groups are at the forefront of arguing for the Intervention-era grog bans to be reinstated.

A coalition including Aboriginal Medical Alliance Services NT, National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency wrote to Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney on June 9.

In their six-page letter, they argued the provisions were “not …racist or negative discrimination”. “Rather, they are … positive and beneficial special measures in keeping with the High Court’s latest definition,” they wrote.

NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles insisted in parliament this week that her government’s decision to scrap the grog bans was based on consultation with “hundreds” of communities.

Sources in the Aboriginal community service sector denied this and said they believed the government acted on an incorrect legal interpretation.

Ms Fyles spokeswoman said her government “cannot extend a commonwealth law, nor will we support paternalistic policies which criminalise Aboriginal communities”. The government has not answered requests to provide evidence about its consultation process or to show the changes are not causing harm.

Opposition domestic violence spokesman Steve Edgington said levels of domestic violence were “unacceptably high”, up 42 per cent since 2016.

“The catastrophic increase in domestic violence across the Territory under Labor’s watch has got to stop,” he said. “Unlike Labor, we will always put the rights of victims above those of offenders. The Fyles government has failed Territorians and failed to keep them safe. In Alice Springs last week, police  reported 54 cases of domestic violence over a 48-hour period.”

For complete story

 

  

This is our voice: tackle grog and violence

SARAH ISON JESS MALCOLM

Remote Australia’s Aboriginal female MPs have united to demand the nation tackle domestic violence and alcoholism ravaging Indigenous communities, with Labor’s Marion

Scrymgour likening the removal of grog bans to “pulling forces out of Afghanistan”.

…Senator Price and Ms Scrymgour – who are both based in Alice Springs – were united on a tough approach to alcohol fuelled violence affecting Indigenous women in the red centre.

Ms Scrymgour, who was elected to the Northern Territory seat of Lingiari in May, said grog ban measures in place for 14 years since John Howard’s Intervention could not suddenly be

revoked with no plan on how to manage the fallout. 

“When a government puts a protective regime of that kind in place, and leaves it in place for that long, you can’t just suddenly pull the pin on it without any protection, sanctuary or plan for the vulnerable women and children whom the original measure was supposed to protect,” she said in her maiden speech to the lower house.

“To do that is more than negligent – at the level of impact on actual lives it is tantamount to causing injury by omission. It’s like pulling your forces out of Afghanistan but leaving your local workers and their dependants in harm’s way on the ground without an escape plan.”

The speech came as the Territory government decided not to extend alcohol bans covering about 400 Aboriginal outstations and communities, prompting concern over a “massive”

increase in rates of violence and abuse fuelled by the abuse of alcohol. Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney is urgently seeking a meeting with Chief Minister Natasha Fyles amid concern over the lifting of the grog bans.

Senator Price began her day with her grandfather’s sister, Tess Napaljarri Ross, who has spent all week with her at parliament, with the pair participating in a traditional ceremony in the grounds of Parliament House before the maiden speech.

As she spoke emotionally of the recent murder-suicide of a young woman and her baby at the hands of the woman’s male partner in Alice Springs last week, Senator Price slammed the end of alcohol bans and said it was one of the most “appalling examples of legislation”. 

She also criticised the federal government’s moves to abolish the cashless debit card.

“We see two clear examples this week over failure to listen. The news grog bans will be lifted on dry communities, allowing the scourge of alcoholism and the violence that  accompanies it free reign,” she said. “Couple this with the removal of the cashless debit card that allowed countless families on welfare to feed their children rather than seeing their money claimed by kinship demands from alcoholics, substance abusers and gamblers in their own family group.”

For complete story