Australia has one of the highest melanoma rates in the world, so it's concerning that a new study has linked white wine with an increased risk of the deadly form of skin cancer.
Brown University researchers have found that drinking white wine, even in moderate amounts, is a melanoma risk.
Why? The co-author of the study, Eunyoung Cho, ScD, an associate professor of dermatology and epidemiology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, suggests alcohol may make us more susceptible to sunburn, because of a compound in alcohol called acetaldehyde, which can damage DNA and prevent DNA repair.
The study involved researchers collecting data from three large studies involving 210,252 participants, all of whom provided information about their drinking habits, place of residence, and health history, including details about sunburn and tanning. Over an 18-year follow-up period, 1374 people were diagnosed with invasive melanoma.
The results, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, showed that each drink per day was associated with a 14% higher risk of melanoma.
The researchers then drilled down into the type of alcohol that participants were drinking and found that each glass of white wine per day was associated with a 13% increased risk of melanoma, while other forms of alcohol did not affect risk in a statistically meaningful way.
Cho says some research has shown that wine has higher levels of acetaldehyde than beer or spirits, while red wine's greater antioxidant content may offset the risks of these compounds.
Women were generally at higher risk, possibly because men metabolize alcohol more effectively.
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