Musings and Amusings

I am certainly amused. It appears that the myriad of studies advising women not to drink for fear of increasing the risk of getting cancer, especially breast cancer, are based on questionable research.

The leading study was one created by one Naomi Allen of Oxford University. There are, it appears, several flaws in her results.

Firstly, her study is an observational one; that is it is based on self reports about the drinking habits of women. Thus it relies on women’s recollections of their drinking habits.

Secondly the study is weakest kind and not in any way close to a randomised controlled trial. None of the reports were checked thus the study can’t verify its data is accurate.

Thirdly consider the results; cancer in non drinking subjects was 5.7%, and those women who had at least one drink a day and up to 14 drinks a week, 5.3%. The teetotallers had a higher incidence of cancer than the drinkers! Even women who had 15 or more drinks a week had a cancer incidence of 5.8%! These figures are hardly statistically significant.

I’ll raise a glass to that!