from Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology
Alcohol use is a major risk factor for certain cancers, namely head and neck cancers. But an article published in Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology notes that by types of alcohol, the lowest incidence of cancer is in people who drank red wine. University of Colorado professor Robert Sclafani says the more alcohol you drink, the more you cause genetic damage to cells in your body increasing your risk for cancer. But he says there’s something in red wine that blocks the cancer-causing effect of alcohol. That something is resveratrol, which removes damaged cells that have the highest probability of causing cancer. Professor Sclafani put it another way: Alcohol damages cells and resveratrol kills damaged cells. Clinical trials are now going on to test the ability of resveratrol to prevent colon and liver cancer.