Drinking Tea and Coffee May Lower Risk for Some Cancers: Study

Drinking a cup of joe or some tea for the holidays may be a good thing!

In a study reviewed in the journal of the American Cancer Society, researchers found that people who drink either tea or coffee have a slightly lower risk of head and neck cancers — though it was unclear if the drinks actually lowered the risk.

Scientists examined data from 14 individual studies — that 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.

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, respectively, of developing head or neck cancer overall.

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The study also noted that those who drank coffee had a lower chance of developing oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers — which are located 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.

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

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“Perhaps bioactive compounds other than caffeine contribute to the potential anti-cancer effect of coffee and tea,” added Lee.

However, drinking more than a cup of tea daily 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).

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However, the study noted that there were limitations, as the study participants self-reported their findings and were not asked about what kind of tea or coffee they drank. There could be other factors that were not included in the study which could have affected it, as well.

“In observational studies, it is very difficult to totally eliminate confounding effects, for example, of tobacco and alcohol from the statistical analysis," Tom Sanders, a professor emeritus of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London, told The Guardian.

“Consequently, people who drink a lot of coffee and tea may be more likely to avoid other harmful behaviors such as drinking alcohol and using tobacco and so may be at a lower risk of these cancers for other reasons,” Sanders, who was not involved in the study, said.

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