Alcohol has been linked with cancer in about 3.6 percent of cases worldwide, due to the presence of acetaldehyde, which damages DNA and prevents it from repairing itself. A study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention that involved 200,000 people found a distinct connection between white wine in particular and melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer. Sun exposure is a well-known cancer risk, but this and other studies have found that subjects often develop melanoma primarily on the trunks of their bodies, which are usually covered by clothing, and it is almost always curable if the cancer is caught early.

This article appears in the January 2018 issue of Natural Awakenings.