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Study links tea to prostate cancer

Written by: QMI Agency
Jun. 19, 2012

(SHUTTERSTOCK)

Men who drink a lot of tea are more likely to develop prostate cancer, say researchers at the University of Glasgow.

The study tracked the health of more than 6,000 men over 37 years and found those who drank more than seven cups of tea a day were 50% more likely to get prostate cancer than non-tea drinkers or those who drank fewer than four cups a day.

But the researchers admit that the tea might not be causing cancer but, rather, adding years onto men's lives.

"Most previous research has shown either no relationship with prostate cancer for black tea or some preventive effect of green tea. We don't know whether tea itself is a risk factor or if tea drinkers are generally healthier and live to an older age when prostate cancer is more common anyway," said lead author Kashif Shafique.

"We found that heavy tea drinkers were more likely not to be overweight, be non-alcohol-drinkers and have healthy cholesterol levels. However, we did adjust for these differences in our analysis and still found that men who drank the most tea were at greater risk of prostate cancer."

The study was published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer.

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