Drinking very hot drinks has been found to triple the risk of developing cancer of the oesophagus.
As reported by The Guardian, the world’s largest study on this link found that people should let very hot cups of tea and coffee cool until they are a comfortable drinking temperature to reduce the risk. The study was led by Dr Keren Papier, a senior nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Oxford’s population health department.
Both the temperature of the drink and the number of very hot drinks someone consumes can increase the changes of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) – but not the other form of oesophageal cancer, adenocarcinoma.
The findings are based on analysis of the consumption of hot drinks by almost 980,000 people in the UK. It followed participants over 14 years to give a long-term picture of their habits and health.
According to the study, “Consumption of drinks at a ‘very hot’ versus ‘warm’ temperature was associated with a threefold greater SCC risk but not with AC risk, after adjustment for consumption frequency”.
“After controlling for drink temperature, daily consumption of six or more versus fewer than six hot drinks was associated with a 71% increase in SCC risk, with little association with AC risk”, said researchers.
Muy-Teck Teh, a professor of molecular oral oncology at Queen Mary University of London, said that as the research relied on self-reported temperatures, this may have affected the findings:
“A key limitation, however, is that perceived drink temperature is inherently subjective, and it remains unclear whether individuals who tolerate or prefer very hot drinks have altered thermosensation or mucosal sensitivity that might itself reflect underlying biological predisposition to squamous cell carcinoma and lead them to prefer hotter drinks.
“This possibility cannot be excluded and complicates interpretation of causality”, he added.
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