Can Red Wine or Vitamin D Reduce Your Lung Cancer Risk?

By Dr Cary Presant MD

Lung cancer is the #1 cause of cancer death for both men and women in America. Lung cancer may occur in smokers as well as in non-smokers. Therefore, any steps that we can take to reduce the risk of lung cancer are worth knowing, following, and sharing with our families.

The most important and primary approach for lowering your risk of lung cancer is smoking cessation. To do this, if you are a smoker, you must be committed to stop smoking, and you can use your physician, your family, supportive counseling, nicotine replacement patches or gum, as well as some of the prescription medications that can reduce smoking drive. But in addition, can other steps help as well?

In a recent article by Dr. C. Chao and co-workers at Kaiser Permanente Health Plan in Northern California (The California Men’s Health Study, Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention Volume 17, page 2696, 2008), the authors evaluated men 45 to 69 years old who had been in the health plan for at least one year. Over 84,000 of these men completed questionnaires about their alcohol use, and were then followed for the development of lung cancer. The authors examined the intake of red or white wine, as well as beer and liquor. Lung cancers were identified by the use of the cancer registry at Kaiser Permanente Hospitals. This study evaluated the development of lung cancer over a period of 3 to 6 years.

The results were important. There was 60 percent reduced risk of lung cancer in men who had smoked at any time associated with drinking red wine, one glass or more per day. There was no reduction in risk of lung cancer associated with white wine, beer, or liquor. In one type of lung cancer, adenocarcinoma, men who drank one or more glasses of red wine per day had an 85 percent reduction in the risk of this type of lung cancer.

These results suggest that one or several glasses of red wine can be associated with a reduction in lung cancer risk. The reduction in lung cancer risk in men who had smoked was very significant.

In a second article, Dr. A. Kilkkinen and co-workers at the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, Finland (Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention Volume 17, page 3274, 2008) examined the relationship of vitamin D with lung cancer in either men or women. Vitamin D has been associated with other cancers, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer. Of course vitamin D is also important in maintaining proper bone health.

In this study, the authors evaluated the blood vitamin D levels in over 6,900 men or women initially between 1978 and 1980, and followed them for up to 24 years. There was a significant association between low vitamin D levels in lung cancer in women, but not in men. The relative risk of women with high vitamin D levels was 84 percent lower than the rate of lung cancer in women with lower levels. Furthermore, there was also an association between age and vitamin D levels. In younger individuals, there was a 66 percent reduced rate of lung cancer if vitamin D levels were adequate, compared to those whose vitamin D levels were lower. This suggests that checking a vitamin D level is important in maintaining appropriate health status, and it is important at any age, even in young adults.

These important findings indicate that individuals can reduce their risk of lung cancer. Discuss with your doctor and nurses your prior and present use of tobacco, and expect to have the doctor give you a plan for smoking cessation. In addition, you should discuss with your physician whether drinking red wine may be helpful to you, and ask whether your levels of vitamin D are adequate to reduce your risk of this serious health condition.