I've come to know Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. surgeon general, in recent years as he released one mental health oriented advisory after another, focusing on loneliness, opioid overdose prevention, anxiety and depression among teens, depression among parents, the harmful influences of social media and the dangers of firearm violence.

Now, as he prepares to leave office, he has released an important and final advisory connecting alcohol use and cancer.

These advisories are all connected around a central theme − that we are a stressed out and unhappy society, where too many people feel isolated and resort to destructive behavior as a result.

I have interviewed Dr. Murthy repeatedly on these subjects, and I have come to see him as a thoughtful and caring physician, well equipped to guide Americans in terms of both causes and solutions.

He has not chosen alcohol by accident. Its use skyrocketed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Studies have shown that this increase is tied to an increase in anxiety and depression.

And alcohol use causes inflammation in the body and leads to increased estrogen. The byproduct of alcohol, aldehyde, damages DNA and DNA repair mechanisms. All of these lead to cancer.

"Alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of cancer behind tobacco and obesity and is responsible for 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths in the United States each year,” Dr. Murthy wrote to me in a statement. “We now know there are seven cancers that are caused by alcohol consumption − breast cancer, colorectal cancer, mouth cancer, throat cancer, voicebox (larnyx) cancer, esophageal cancer, and liver cancer."

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Something needs to be done, beginning with the need to alter the public perception's that a small amount of daily alcohol is actually good for you.

The surgeon general disagrees, and urges upcoming guidelines to reflect that ‒ much as surgeon general reports by Dr. Luther Terry in 1964 and by Dr. C. Everett Koop in the 1980s pounded away at educating the public on the cancer risk of smoking cigarettes until tobacco use dropped precipitously.

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It will also take a long time to change public perception about alcohol and cancer. Dr. Murthy is right to start now.

"There is increased cancer risk within the current guideline limits of one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men,” he told me. “The data tells us that more alcohol consumption leads to greater cancer risk. … I am calling for the Surgeon General's warning on alcohol-containing beverages to be updated to include cancer risk. I am also calling for a reassessment of the guideline limits for alcohol consumption to take into account the causal link between alcohol and cancer."

No amount of alcohol is a safe amount, especially when you consider that alcohol is addictive, that it is not the right treatment for stress because of its health risks, and that because of its social acceptability people are far too likely to overlook these risks, including cancer.

"For individuals, be aware that cancer risk increases as you drink more alcohol,” Murthy told me. “As you consider whether and how much to drink, keep in mind that drinking less is better when it come to reducing your cancer risk."

Wise words from a passionate surgeon general whose heart is in the right place. He is an internist, but his string of advisories are wise ministrations on crucial mental health issues.

Of course mental health affects physical health as the effect of alcohol on cancer risk clearly shows. It is up to the next administration’s leaders of the Health and Human Services Department to continue in this direction, and there is every reason to believe, with their stated focus on healthier food, exercise and mental health, that they have every intention of doing so.

The best cancer prevention occurs before a patient ever gets to a doctor’s office.

Dr. Marc Siegel is a professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at New York University's Langone Health. His latest book is "COVID: The Politics of Fear and the Power of Science." Follow him on Twitter: @DrMarcSiegel

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