Think Pinker

A Glass a Day Keeps Side Effects Away

Breast cancer patients who are receiving radiation therapy are no strangers to side effects. One of the side effects with this type of breast cancer treatment is skin reactions. Skin toxicity can be fought with other drugs, but these drugs tend to get a bit expensive and many have side effects of their own.

Enter the Italians. In the new study, 348 women who all have breast cancer were divided into three groups depending on the levels of radiation given to them. According to the findings, women who drank a glass of wine on the day they received treatment had lower rates of toxicity than those who did not. Women who consumed a glass a day had only a 13.6 percent rate of skin toxicity compared to the 38.4 percent that had it and didn’t drink any wine.

Researchers say it is the anti-oxidents that make this possible and add that unlike some anti-oxidents that can actually protect the breast cancer tumor, wine does not. Leave it to the Italians to find yet another good use for wine.

So if you are one of the unfortunate ones who has to go through radiation therapy, keep fighting, never give up hope, and enjoy a nice glass of wine. ThinkPinker.com keeps all of you in thought and will continue to hope and fight with you until the day a breast cancer cure is found.

Read more about these findings at ajc.com.