By Staff Writer (media@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Aug 23, 2015 06:42 AM EDT

Women might increase the risk of having breast cancer by drinking wine, according to a recent study. The new findings shed more light on the effects of light drinking.

NHS Choices reported that the new study was conducted at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School in the United States and involved almost 136,000 people. The researchers used the records of over 88,000 women and 47,000 men in a couple of long-term U.S. studies of health professionals that started in 1980 and 1986.

The researchers asked the participants in the studies about their background, family history of cancer, diet, smoking habits, physical activity, height and weight. The study defined one standard drink to contain 15 grams of alcohol, which is equivalent to about a 118ml glass of wine or a 355ml bottle of beer.

The researchers found that women who consumed about one glass of wine each day over a 30-year period were 13 percent more likely to have an alcohol-related cancer, specifically breast cancer which is the most common, compared to women who did not drink at all.

The study revealed that low to moderate drinking increased the risk of some types of cancers believed to be related to alcohol, but the effects were only present in women who smoked. The study also showed that there were 11 extra breast cancers for every 1000 women below 75 years old for every extra drink consumed daily. The heightened risk might be minor, but the number of women who consume alcohol can be a concern, The Guardian reported.

Men who did not smoke but drank moderately did not show any increased risk for any type of cancer. Among male smokers, the risk for cancer increased with two drinks per day, but not in men who did not smoke. The increased risk was minor compared to those who drank heavily.

“We know that the public are still largely unaware of the links between alcohol and cancer, particularly the increased risk of developing breast cancer. We all have a right to know what we are putting into our bodies and at the minute consumers are being denied this right. It’s time that this changed; we need mandatory health warnings on alcohol labels so that people know the facts and can make an informed choice,” Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK, said in the same Guardian report.

The results of the study were published online in the British Medical Journal.

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