Steaming hot tea linked to cancer

[steven johnson]

I like tea and occasionally dirink it very hot. Whoops!

Drinking steaming hot tea has been linked with an increased risk of oesophageal (food tube) cancer, Iranian scientists have found.

The British Medical Journal study found that drinking black tea at temperatures of 70C or higher increased the risk. Experts said the finding could explain the increased oesophageal cancer risk in some non-Western populations.

Adding milk, as most tea drinkers in Western countries do, cools the drink enough to eliminate the risk. Compared with drinking warm or lukewarm tea (65C or less), drinking hot tea (65-69C) was associated with twice the risk of oesophageal cancer, and drinking very hot tea (70C or more) was associated with an eight-fold increased risk.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7965380.stm

[mainegreen]

1. Shit, what doesn't give you cancer?

Nitrogen, and that's about it.

[HereSince1628]

2. God told Mormons to avoid hot drinks over 175 years ago

Where the fuck have the faithful been?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Go Go Brigham! Next thing we'll find out is that 27 wives are good for prostate health!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TwilightGardener]

3. Then drinking steaming hot coffee must also cause esophageal cancer.

Or steaming hot soup. Or anything steaming hot. Because I imagine the root cause is not the tea itself, but the fact that the hot liquid damages or otherwise alters the mucosal lining of the esophagus, causing the cells to have to regenerate faster than they normally would--and the more cell divisions, the more chance for mutations in the DNA. I guess I'm in deep doo-doo, with my steaming hot cups of morning joe and my steaming hot cups of evening tea.

[Duer 157099]

6. If the study were done properly, they'd have a control for that

they would have compared the hot tea to hot coffee or just hot water - at least that's standard scientific protocol.

It could be that there's a mildly carcinogenic compound in the tea, that when exposed to compromised tissue (heat damaged cells) is able to do damage.

I didn't read the study so maybe they discuss this

:shrug:

[TwilightGardener]

9. Well, apparently adding milk cools the tea, which is beneficial, so

that's why I figured it was a primarily temp-related issue, not so much an issue of the compounds in black tea--although maybe you're right as to something being in the tea itself that causes problems when the heat damages the tissues. I'll bet the researchers used black tea because it's the most common hot drink in the world, crossing all cultural lines.

[jobycom]

13. Not in this case, since tea was the control, and temperature the variable.

For a follow-up, another study could compare the findings to other liquids. In this one, esophegal cancer rates were compared to tea drinking habits amongst people in one city. The only variable was the temperature. Those who drank their tea hot had higher incidences of cancer. Introducing another beverage would have made the beverage itself a variable, and that's what they were trying not to do. Also, I don't know if the region in Iran had a lot of coffee drinkers.

They do conclude, though, that drinking any beverage hot might have the same effect. That's where a further study with coffee and hot water and soup would be useful.

[Duer 157099]

14. I suppose in studies like these, it's hard to get correct controls

I mean, how many volunteers would sign up for a study to drink scalding hot water to see if it gives you esophegal cancer? Finding a native population who already does so would be tricky I bet.

[jobycom]

16. Yeah, there might be some ethics involved in that, too.

"Okay, we want you to drink this hot water every day, about one liter, until you get cancer." Hipocrates might not approve.

[Sanity Claws]

4. Sounds like the problem is the heat

not the tea. Maybe the heat is damaging the esophagus, leaving it more susceptible to cancer.
I'm guilty of drinking super hot tea, don't know the temp.

[Historic NY]

5. Oh thank God, I use milk I just had a spot.

[Historic NY]

23. Will Dunkin Donuts & McDonald's lower their coffee temp?

They usually have the hottest that it takes some time before its safe to drink.

[Orrex]

7. What if it's steaming hot green tea?

I'm told that this foul bilge cures everything, but :puke:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. Latest report on causes of cancer:

Life.

[jobycom]

17. Maybe, but if the odds go up eightfold by drinking steaming tea, I'm letting it cool.

Life will kill me sooner or later, so why help it along?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

20. What's entirely possible,

of course, is that a report will come out next year that states that drinking hot liquids extends your life by ten years.

It's all such pervasive silliness.

I just think of Warren Zevon, as he was checking out. His advice to others?

"Enjoy every sandwich."

[jobycom]

21. Warren Zevon

also said that he regretted his disdain for doctors, and that it had killed him.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

24. That's right ........

And that has nothing to do with his final message.

In case you missed it, his point was that we're all going to die anyway, so you might as well enjoy the trip. If you believe that not drinking anything hot will extend your life, or preserve the quality of it, then that is your chosen path and may it be a long and fruitful one.

Me, I've been burning it up as fast as I get it, and that's working very nicely for me.

So, warnings come and warnings go. I choose not to live in a miasma of ambiguous fears generated by specious research. But, that's just me .......................

[mucifer]

10. wait 6 months another study will say steaming hot tea cures esophageal tea

[applegrove]

11. anytime you do anything that runs down cells that kills them you increase the risk

of Cancer. Smoking? Lung, oral, throat cancers. Hot tea? cancer. Eating poorly? colo-rectal cancer. We each genetically have instruction on the ends of are genes that say, specific to the cells that will be created, "one time copy this cell". And a new throat cell or a new lung cell is created. Over time the ends of the instruction falls off once they are copied many, many times. Till the "one time" falls off completely. Then you are left with instructions to "copy this cell"...which is cancer. The length and strength of the whole instructions vary from person to person...just like one's genetic predisposition to getting certain types of cancer.

So don't do anything except for excercise (and sex) that destroys cells. Eat right. Drink warm tea not scalding.

How I understand cancer anyhow.

[eShirl]

12. wasn't there some reason recently you're not supposed to put milk in your tea?

that was when I switched to non-dairy creamer... now I can't remember why

[grillo7]

26. Proteins in the milk bind to and in-activate the anti-oxidants...

It's not really bad, it just makes it less healthy.

[ginnyinWI]

15. what is 70C in Farenheit?

Is it about 100 degrees? If so, that's just lukewarm. Yuck.

Green tea is supposed to prevent cancer. Now hot tea is bad?

[Duer 157099]

18. Um, no. 37 degrees C is body temp, about 98 degrees F n/t

[frazzled]

19. Its 158 F, which is pretty lukewarm

Given that boiling is 212.

I'm a goner. I drink a cup of steaming hot tea every evening. No milk.

[trotsky]

22. 158F = lukewarm?!?!?

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/5098.html
Most adults will suffer third-degree burns if exposed to 150 degree water for two seconds. Burns will also occur with a six-second exposure to 140 degree water or with a thirty second exposure to 130 degree water. Even if the temperature is 120 degrees, a five minute exposure could result in third-degree burns.

I don't know about you, but I think any water that can burn is definitely NOT lukewarm.

[Historic NY]

25. I don't know but the hot crap the Repukes are passing out probably is.