By Katarina A. Lewczyk | Date published: February 18, 2025
Pranoti Mandrekar Explores Health Risks of Alcohol Consumption
At the start of the year, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory linking alcohol consumption to an increased risk of several types of cancer. As alcohol is a leading cause of preventable death, Pranoti Mandrekar, PhD, professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, explains the negative effects of alcohol on the body in a recent Scientific American article.
“The metabolism of alcohol generates free radicals—essentially, unstable oxygen molecules—that damage proteins and DNA,” said Dr. Mandrekar. According to her research, these free radicals can alter certain “chaperone” proteins, accelerating tumor growth in the body.