The next time you lie in the sun and are offered a drink, maybe you will avoid drinking alcohol. This would also be a risk factor for skin cancer, according to a study published in the specialized journal British Journal of Dermatology.
In fact, it is the combination of alcohol and sun exposure that would be particularly harmful for the skin when it is not protected by a UV filter or covered with clothing. Researchers at the University of Milan come up with a figure that should give you pause for thought the next time you have a lightly dressed aperitif: one alcoholic drink a day is enough to increase the risk of skin cancer by 20%.
The danger would be proportional to the consumption of alcohol. Consumers who swallow the equivalent of 50 g of ethanol (the active substance in alcoholic beverages) every day are 55% more exposed to melanoma (the most aggressive form of skin cancer) than occasional drinkers.
“Alcohol enhances cellular damage associated with the sun and may promote skin cancer,” says Dr. Eva Negri, one of the researchers involved in the study.
The explanation would come from ethanol which turns into acéltadhyde after ingestion. This compound would increase the skin’s sensitivity to UV rays, according to the researchers. “We know that in the presence of UV rays, alcohol consumption changes the body’s immunocompetence, that is, its ability to produce a normal immune response,” she told the BBC.
Dr Eva Negri hopes that her results will advance awareness of the harmful effects of alcohol on health and on the skin: “We hope that people will use this study to better protect themselves from the sun”.
