Grabbing a cocktail with the ladies could put the twins at risk.
The Student Health Care Center said in a tweet posted Friday, “Drinking #alcohol increases the risk of #breast #cancer. The level of risk rises as the amount of alcohol consumed rises.”
Catherine A. Seemann, communications coordinator for the SHCC, said students should be aware of all risks associated with breast cancer.
“While females cannot change certain risk factors such as age, genetics, family history of breast cancer, and race and ethnicity,” she said, “they may be able to take control of lifestyle-related risk factors such as alcohol consumption, physical activity and weight.”
It is important for people to have regular checkups and be aware of their bodies, Seemann said.
She said the information from the tweet was taken directly from the American Cancer Society’s website, http://www.cancer.org/.
In comparison to nondrinkers, women who consumed between two to five drinks daily have a 1.5 times greater risk of developing breast cancer, according to the website.
Beauty Kolenc, a 25-year-old UF public relations senior, said her mom is a breast cancer survivor.
“It was really hard to watch my mom go through all of the cancer treatments,” she said. “She had surgery, chemo and radiation therapy.”
Kolenc said her mom is 43 years old.
“My mom is young,” she said. “I’m just glad that she got herself checked out and that her doctors were so aggressive with her treatments.”
Kolenc said her mom rarely drinks and doesn’t smoke.
“I do drink socially,” she said. “If I knew that those factors were going to increase my risk, I would make changes to try and lower my risk of getting cancer.”
A version of this story ran on page 4 on 10/9/2013 under the headline "SHCC: Drinking not best for breasts"
