A new report raises alarm that drinking hot tea increases one’s risk for developing esophageal cancer, but with an important caveat: if the beverage is accompanied with heavy alcohol consumption and cigarette use.
The latest study, which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday, surveyed over 450,000 people ages 30 to 79 across 10 regions in China and collected data on the usual temperature of their tea and lifestyle behaviors such as drinking alcohol or smoking.
The study was led by Beijing researchers Dr. Canqing Yu and Dr. Haijing Tang of Peking University. They found that high-temperature tea drinking, combined with heavy smoking and drinking, was associated with a greater risk for esophageal cancer.
Yet, drinking hot tea alone was not associated with developing cancer.
In the end, the researchers indicated 1,731 cases of esophageal cancer.
Dr. Yu and Dr. Tang wrote in their introduction that China is among the countries with the highest incidence of esophageal cancer and that “tea drinkers, especially Chinese men, are more likely to smoke and to drink alcohol.” These three factors could “complicate” the risks for developing this disease.
In an accompanying editorial, National Institutes of Health scientist Dr. Farin Kamminger said it’s not far-fetched to question whether hot beverages can be cancer-causing. The idea first came about in the 1930s when doctors at New York’s Memorial Hospital – a precursor to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center – hypothesized that esophageal cancer patients had a history of drinking “copious amounts of excessively hot tea.”
Dr. Kamminger continued that most people drink hot beverages around 140 degrees Fahrenheit, lower than the recommended 149 degrees to prevent negative health effects.
“However, the results of this study should not cause people to abandon their favorite beverage,” Dr. Kamminger wrote. “Most people drink their tea and coffee at a temperature that seems unlikely to cause cancer.”
• Laura Kelly can be reached at lkelly@washingtontimes.com.
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