Drinking tea and cancer can lower the risk of some cancers: Report

If you thought you were doing more bad than good by indulging in your favourite hot beverage daily? Well, then you’re wrong. In a new study by the American Cancer Society, researchers found that people who drink either tea or coffee have a slightly lower risk of head and neck cancer. It is however unclear if both tea or coffee was actually lowering the risk directly.

The data was examined from 14 individual studies. Scientists examined over 9,500 people with head and neck cancers and over 15,00 people without — from the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology consortium for their research.

What does the study suggest?

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The study found that those who drank less than four cups of caffeinated coffee daily and less than a cup of tea had a 17% and 9% lower chance of developing head or neck cancer overall.

The study also noted that those who drank coffee had a lower chance of developing oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers which basically happen in the middle part of the throat, according to Yale Medicine.

Meanwhile, those who drank less than a cup of tea had a lower chance of developing hypopharyngeal cancer which develops in the bottom part of the throat, per John Hopkins Medicine.

Guardian reported, senior author of the study, Dr. Yuan-Chin Amy Lee of Huntsman Cancer Institute and the University of Utah School of Medicine said, “While there has been prior research on coffee and tea consumption and reduced risk of cancer, this study highlighted their varying effects with different subsites of head and neck cancer including the observation that even decaffeinated coffee had some positive impact.”

But this was possible only if they limited the quantity of tea and coffee consumed. The report added that drinking more than a cup of tea daily would have adverse effects on the body and was associated with a higher chance of getting laryngeal cancer — which forms in the larynx, the part of the throat that controls the vocal cords, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

There could be however other factors involved in this like the kind of tea consumed and how it was prepared. There could be other factors that can affect the outcome which could have affected the overall study.