Tea lovers who take their daily cup scalding hot are raising their chance of having esophageal cancer if they also drink alcohol every day or if they smoke, say researchers.
A study that followed more than 450,000 people in China for 9 years provides evidence of a relationship between drinking hot tea every day, regular drinking and smoking, and a higher risk of esophageal cancer.
The study, led by Canqing Yu, PhD, of Peking University Health Science Center in Beijing, China, was published online February 5 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The risk of esophageal cancer was 5 times higher in people who drank very hot tea and also drank more than 15 grams of alcohol -- a standard alcoholic drink -- every day, compared with those who drank tea less than once a week and had fewer than 15 grams of alcohol daily.
