June Russell's Health Facts

Smoking and Alcohol

Alcohol magnifies the rewarding effects of smoking, even for light smokers, according to University of Chicago researchers. The study was reported in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, April 2005. Data from studies have shown that people who drink alcohol are more likely to smoke, says first author Andrea C. King, a psychologist.
{Health Tips: News that Keeps you Healthy, Apr. 2005}

Compared with the risk for nonsmokers and nondrinkers, the relative risks for developing mouth and breast cancer are 7 times greater for those who use tobacco, 6 times greater if they use alcohol, and 38 times greater for those who use both tobacco and alcohol
{Blot, W. J., Cancer Research, "Alcohol and Cancer," 1992}
{Alcohol and Tobacco, www.at health.com, Aug. 2005}

Duke University Medical Center researchers found that even small amounts of alcohol boosts the pleasurable effects of nicotine, inducing people to smoke more when drinking alcohol — even smaller amounts. The findings explain statistics showing that alcoholics tend to smoke more than non-alcoholics, and that smokers are more likely to be alcoholics. Jed Rose, PhD, director of the Duke Nicotine Research Program, said that the combined use of cigarettes and alcohol presents health risks over and above the risks posed by smoking alone. Both drugs have been shown to boost brain concentrations of dopamine, a nerve cell messenger implicated in the positive reinforcement underlying addiction. Nicotine was the ingredient underlying the interaction. It makes sense that so many people who have quit smoking relapse when they drink, said Rose.
{"Insight into alcohol-nicotine interaction might lead to new quitting method," Duke University Medical Center, Mar. 2004, on sciencedaily.com}

Everyone knows that smoking causes lung disease, yet there are missing links in this equation because so many smokers never develop lung cancer. Alcohol boosts smoking’s harm, and smokers who drink regularly are nearly twice as likely to have a certain type of genetic mutation associated with lung cancer as are smokers who do not drink. The researchers suspect that alcohol interferes with the body’s ability to convert carcinogenic chemicals in smoke into more benign substances that it can then eliminate. Alcohol may also disrupt the body’s ability to repair DNA that has been damaged by carcinogens.
{"Dangerous Duo," U.S. News and World Report, in Reader’s Digest, Dec. 2000}

In smokers, alcohol actually increases the craving to smoke, according to a study at Perdue University.
{University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter, Feb. 1997}

Recent data shows that smoking kills more alcoholics than alcohol does. One theory of why smoking and alcohol use go together, says John R. Hughes, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont and lead author of a study in "Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research," is that smoking stimulates and alcohol relaxes. Smokers may use alcohol to prevent over-stimulation from smoking, and alcoholics use cigarettes to prevent sedation.
{alcoholism.about.com, Oct. 2001} Editor's comment: Alcohol actually drugs or sedates, which is not true relaxation.

For smokers, the addition of regular drinking (alcohol) could make them prone to mutations, resulting in a more aggressive lung cancer.
{HealthCentral.com, June 2000}

Smoking (nicotine) increases the desire for alcohol.
{"Cigarettes Induce Craving for Alcohol," researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health At the University of Toronto, in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, Jointogether.org, May 2001}

Smokers are cautioned not to drink, as it undermines willpower and the determination to quit. Alcohol releases both social and personal inhibitions.
{in the book, "The Last Puff," Farquar, MD and Spiller, PhD, 1990}

Both smoking and drinking alcohol increases the risk of developing cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus and stomach, but the carcinogenic potential of the combination is greater than the sum of the parts.
{in the book, "Natural Health, Natural Medicine," by Andrew Weil, MD}

Moderate drinking increases the risk of cancer by two to three times. If you smoke and drink alcohol the risk is 15 times as great.
{Luks and Barbato, "You Are What You Drink," 1989}

Alcohol and Lungs

The headlines report "Drinking Wine, Particularly White Wine, May Help Keep Lungs Healthy, University at Buffalo Study Finds." Holger Schunemann, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Social and Preventive Medicine at the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, reported that drinking wine, particularly white wine, recently, and over a lifetime was associated with better lung function. However, he also stated that the researchers, including himself, attributed the better lung health and function to the antioxidants in the wine, the flavonoids and phenols. He also noted that evidence suggests that alcohol may increase the oxidative burden.
{"Alcohol - Lungs," Atlanta, Georgia, source: University at Buffalo}
{www.buffalo.edu organtx.org - May 2002}   Editor's comment: This oxidative stress plays an important role in the chronic complications of insulin-dependent diabetes, which can lead to an increase in oxygen-derived free-radicals (according to the Journal of Diabetes Complications 2002). While emphasizing the positive effects of alcohol on the lungs (although it was attributed to the antioxidants) the media reports failed to include the problem of the wine increasing the oxidative burden . . . which then increases free-radicals and complications of diabetes.
{Betty Kamen & Dr. Michael Rosenbaum, MD, "Nutrition Hints," Aug. 2002, Hint #943}

Alcohol makes the lung liable to injury and infection by producing a decrease in alveolar epithelial levels of glutathione (an antioxidant) as well as inhibiting the response to bacterial infection. In a recent study by Australian researchers of asthmatics, 42% had reactions to alcoholic drinks, wine being the most frequent cause. Asthmatic reactions generally appeared quickly and were of moderate intensity. Drinking alcohol dramatically boosts the risk of common gene mutation in smokers developing lung cancer.
{Alcohol Research Center, alcoholresearch.Isumc.edu - August 2002}

When a new drug, designed to block the effects of nicotine, was given to subjects they reported being less stimulated and euphoric after drinking (alcohol), and also had reduced desire to drink more. Nicotine apparently increases the stimulant-like effect of alcohol. The drug, mecamylamine, is a high blood pressure drug, and reduces the "rewarding" effects of smoking.
{"Nicotine drug could take the high out of hootch," The Hartford Courant, in The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Virginia, May 25, 2003}