Hot tea increases the risk of cancer
Hot tea can promote the development of esophageal cancer. Who regularly drink more than 0.7 liters of tea per day with a minimum temperature of 60 degrees, suffer a significantly increased risk of a Tumor in the esophagus. This was the result of a recent study published in the “International Journal of Cancer”.
References to such a connection, there are already longer. The world health organization (WHO) had classified the “Drinking very hot drinks at more than 65 degrees Celsius,” already in 2016, as “possibly carcinogenic”. The investigation, referred in addition to tea to coffee or cocoa. Also the German cancer research center (DKFZ) warns in connection with cancer of the oesophagus and in front of very hot drinks.
The results of the current study complement these assessments a very large data base For their study, researchers from 2004 to 2017 information of more than 50,000 women and men in the Northern Iranian province of Golestan collected. On average, the researchers accompanied the participants for ten years.
In addition to the exact habits, tea consumption, the researchers collected data on education and household income as well as dietary habits, may also have an impact on the risk of cancer.
Home visits, in order to determine the serving temperature
Staff also visited the study participants in their homes, in order to determine the preferred drinking temperature of tea. They were the men and women two cups of pour. In a Cup, the employees stuck a Thermometer. As the temperature of the tea had fallen to 75 degrees Celsius, participants were asked for the first Time, to SIP.
The tea was still too hot, started researchers at 70, 65 and 60 degrees, respectively, further Attempts, until the drink had reached the preferred drinking temperature. In previous studies, participants self-reported on how hot their tea is usually the case when you drink it – a comparatively error-prone process.
In the course of the investigation, 317 of the 50,000 participants affected by a squamous cell carcinoma, one of the two most common forms of esophageal cancer. After the possible other factors of influence such as Smoking or alcohol consumption to expect unique correlations between the temperature of tea and cancer risk were statistically the researchers report.
To fit the result that the risk of cancer was greater, the less time between the Pour and the Drink was, the researchers report by Farhad Islami of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran (Iran).
Compared with participants who had less than a drink 0.7 liters of tea per day with a temperature of less than 60 degrees, increased the risk of cancer for those who consumed more tea at a higher temperature, to 90 percent.
According to DKFZ tube cancer is food in Germany, however, a comparatively rare disease. In the year 2014, it was discovered in the case of 5370 men and 1560 women, a malignant Tumor of the esophagus.
How may promote hot drinks cancer?
The researchers assume that the hot liquid caused the injuries, which could lead to inflammatory processes. This, in turn, could alter the genetic material or the formation of carcinogenic substances that promote cancer as a possible consequence.
Stephen Evans of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who was not involved in the study, suspected injuries caused by heat as a cause. “It is possible that the injury leads to cell changes and cancer,” he says.
This direct connection may, however, also demonstrate the current study, one hundred percent, her only shortcoming is that The data can only show that lovers of hot teas are more likely to develop cancer – but not that the hot tea has actually caused the tumors.
In addition to very hot tea, alcohol as well as chronic heartburn increase, according to DKFZ, among other things, also Smoking, the risk for esophageal cancer.
