According to a U. S. researcher, young women who drink alcohol increase their risk of non-cancerous breast disease.

The study shows the risk of benign breast disease increases with the amount of alcohol consumed as a girl or young woman, says Dr. Graham Colditz of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and colleagues.

About 80 percent of breast lumps are benign; however, these lesions can sometimes be a step on the pathway to breast cancer, so benign breast disease is a marker of breast cancer risk, Colditz further explains.

Colditz says in a statement, "The study is an indication that alcohol should be limited in adolescence and early adult years and further focuses our attention on these years as key to preventing breast cancer later in life."

It was also found by Colditz and colleagues at Harvard University that teens which drank six or seven days a week were 5.5 times more likely to have benign breast disease than those who had less than one drink per week.

The researchers further said that those drinking three to five days per week had three times the risk.

It was also informed that the study was based on 6,899 girls, ages 9-15 years and tracked from 1996 to 2007 using health surveys. (With Inputs from Agencies)