Three generations of women preparing healthy food together in their kitchen.

Drink less,
live more.

 
Literally, that’s the recipe — according to decades of studies that document the ways that excessive drinking harms our bodies and brains. On the flip side, when we drink less, we avoid a lot of pain. Not just fewer headaches and hangovers, but a lower risk of serious long-term health problems like cancer, heart disease and depression.11

Excessive drinking can affect:

An illustrated male and female with callout circles to: prostate, colon, heart, head and neck, sleep, liver, brain and breasts
Illustration of prostate

Prostate: Drinking alcohol raises your risk of prostate cancer.12

Illustration of colon

Colon: Drinking alcohol raises your risk of developing colorectal cancer.14

Sleep: Alcohol can disrupt the way we sleep and how well we sleep.31

Illustration of heart

Heart: Binge drinking puts you at higher risk for high blood pressure, strokes and heart disease.13

Illustration of man's head and neck in profile

Head and neck: Regular heavy drinking raises your risk for developing cancers of the head and neck, including mouth, throat, voice box and esophagus.14

Illustration of liver

Liver: Excessive drinking contributes to three types of liver disease: fatty liver, alcohol-related hepatitis and cirrhosis.15

Illustration of brain

Brain: Alcohol can trigger mood and behavioral changes or make them worse, including depression, anxiety, memory loss and alcohol dependency.16

Breasts: Drinking alcohol increases your risk for breast cancer.17

Does drinking any amount of alcohol increase your health risks?

Many factors can affect your risk for these and other health harms including age, medication you’re taking, pregnancy or gender. For some people, drinking any alcohol is too much. In general, any decrease in the amount of alcohol you drink will lower your risk of cancer and other harms.24

Talk with your health care provider to understand more about your personal risk, and visit our resources page for support to drink less.

How are alcohol and cancer linked?

Alcohol is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning it is known to cause cancer. After drinking alcohol, the body breaks it down into acetaldehyde, a chemical that damages your DNA and prevents your body from repairing that damage. With the DNA damaged, a cell can begin growing out of control and create a cancer tumor.

Because alcohol is a carcinogen, lower levels of drinking can also be harmful even if you don’t feel drunk.25

Excessive drinking affects all of us

You don’t have to drink a lot or at all to be affected by excessive drinking. Children, families, communities all pay the costs. Excessive drinking also costs Oregon $4.8 billion per year, including lost earnings for workers and revenue for businesses, health care expenses, criminal justice costs, and car crashes. That’s $1,100 for every person in Oregon.21