Woman’s Voice: The Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition is a diverse group of dedicated community members united around the goal of reducing substance use in Lenawee County LSAPC members work collaboratively to engage and educate the community in order to promote a healthy Lenawee.
Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams. And with me on tonight’s program is Madeline DeMarco. And Madeline is the coalition coordinator for the LSAPC, along with being the community outreach and prevention coordinator for the Lenawee Community Mental Health Authority, Madeline you’re super involved in things that have to do with helping people live healthier lives.
Madeline DeMarco: Yes, absolutely. Uh, everything that we do at the prevention coalition works with that. And that’s actually what we’re here to talk about today. As we’ve been featuring a new campaign on our social media, that we’re calling Drink Less for Your Breasts. And this is all about raising awareness for the idea that drinking alcohol is actually a breast cancer risk factor, which a lot of folks don’t know about.
Kathy Williams: I personally had no clue on that. I know a lot of other risk factors come to mind, but not necessarily drinking. So tell us a little bit about how, um, the research goes on that. What are the odds, um, and how do we stay out of that mix, I guess?
Madeline DeMarco: Yeah. So every year the Centers for Disease Control estimate that about 19,000 women develop breast cancer each year due to drinking alcohol. And this risk is actually 14% higher for people who drink regularly on a regular basis, you know, a couple times a week or whatever that looks like then, then for someone who doesn’t drink. And we want to raise awareness about this because these long-term impacts of alcohol use are particularly important for our young women, as they’re setting up good health for their bodies as, as they’re aging and, and moving forward with life. And we also know that alcohol use is more common amongst younger women as well. So although drinking alcohol at any age increases the risk of breast cancer, we know that young people are more likely to be the ones drinking the most
Kathy Williams: Well because of the different social settings that they’re in. I mean, you hate to bring the old peer pressure up, but that, you know, does tend to affect a little bit younger demographic and, you know, just opportunities are a little more readily available maybe to, to start out with, uh, a bad habit, basically. Um, you know, some drinking is fun, but you do need to know that this is a possible risk that you could be exposing yourself to.
Madeline DeMarco: Yeah, absolutely. Because even just drinking small amounts, like just one drink a day increases your risk of developing breast cancer. And this increases the more that you drink. So basically a good thing to think about is the more you drink, the higher your risk of developing breast cancer is. But the good news is it’s actually pretty easy to lower this risk, even just drinking one fewer drink a week can lower your risk pretty substantially. So, you know, one fewer drink on that Zoom call that can help reduce your risk by, by a couple of percentage points if you keep that up regularly. So every little bit counts
Kathy Williams: Just kind of think, oh, do I really need this one? Maybe I’ll skip this one and go for the next one or something, you know?
Madeline DeMarco: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And we have a lot of tips that as you’re mentioning that can kind of help with that. And one of those is maybe alternating with beverages. So if you’re at an event and you start out with a beer, maybe drinking a glass of water or juice or something like that before going for your next drink, also drinking things slowly. So instead of, you know, just shotting that drink, tossing it back, trying to try to take smaller sips, um, as well as having some food in your stomach before, before you go out and drink. Um, another thing is, is to keep track of how much you’re drinking, um, especially on those nights out, it can be easy to lose track of, you know, is this my third glass of wine or my fifth? And there’s actually a lot of apps out there that folks can use to help them keep track of their, of their drinking. Um, as well as getting support. You know, a lot of us drink in social settings with friends and family. And so the more we can kind of get the word out with, with our friends and say, Hey, I’m trying to drink a little bit less today. Can you help support that? Um, the more successful we’re likely to be
Kathy Williams: Well, and I think also when you’re, if you’re the host or hostess of those events, just having more of the alternative options available helps along with that too. I know if the, if the cooler of beer is sitting right next to the lemonade and iced tea and the pops, you might open a different cooler or pour a different glass, and it does get monotonous too. Especially with the hot days we have coming up,
Madeline DeMarco: The more we can make not drinking alcohol, the norm so it’s not weird to show up with a glass of lemonade or a fancy mocktail. There’s all kinds of cool stuff out there these days, the easier…
Kathy Williams: Oh my gosh, the seltzer waters…
Madeline DeMarco: Oh yeah. I’m with ya. The easier it will be. And you’ll probably feel better and more hydrated on those hot summer days as well. If you’re not just drinking beer the whole time.
Kathy Williams: And not only will you be not increasing your chances of developing breast cancer, but you’re going to feel better the next day.
Madeline DeMarco: Exactly, exactly.
Kathy Williams: So I know we don’t talk much about men with breast cancer, but there is always that problem as well. I just isn’t as pronounced with a risk factor for this.
Madeline DeMarco: Correct. Men can get breast cancer because of drinking alcohol, but it’s much, much less likely. In fact, the research shows that it’s really only heavy drinking that’s correlated with an increased risk of breast cancer in men, whereas any drinking can increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. That’s why we’re really emphasizing ladies, If you’re out there, uh, drink less for your breasts.
Kathy Williams: There you go. So Madeline, you said this is more information’s available on the, uh, on the internet?
Madeline DeMarco: Correct. Yes. We have a website, the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Um, you can reach us at DrugPreventionLenawee.com. We also have a Facebook page. You can find us @LenaweeVsAddiction. We’re doing a whole social media campaign, trying to raise awareness around drinking less for your breasts for the month of June. So you can, you can learn more there and, and share the post with your friends. So, so they know more as well, too.
Kathy Williams: Thanks so much Madeline. We appreciate you.
Madeline DeMarco: Thank you for having me.
Woman’s Voice: Thank you for listening. This information has been provided by the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. New messages air on the first and third Monday of each month at 6:15 p.m. You can listen to this program as a podcast under the audio tab on WLEN.com and listen and gather more information at DrugPreventionLenawee.com.
