Drinking Too Much Tea Can Lead To High Prostate Cancer Risk In Men

Unsweetened green, black of white tea is known as arguably the healthiest beverage on our tables. It is quite hard to find someone who would not like tea, and there are millions of true tea fans around the world who enjoy the warmth and beautiful aroma of this amazing herbal infusion. There are pretty many varieties of tea made from the dried leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. This natural remedy is especially valued for its high content of antioxidants, flavonoids, tannins, polyphenols, flavanols, catechins, and other natural nutrients essential for our body. Health benefits of tea are incredibly various, and tea is considered one of the most beneficial natural remedy recommended for prevention of many common diseases, proving us with excellent health and longevity.

Green, black or white tea are very well studied, and till now there were almost no studies resulted in finding negative or unwanted side effects of consuming this beverage, even for those who like drinking too much tea on a daily basis. What is too much tea, you can ask? Well, usually the recommended dose of tea should not exceed 5-6 cups a day, so those of us who drink 7 and more cups are actually abusing this healthy beverage. In particular, according to the findings of a recent study, those men who are heavy tea drinkers and drink more than 7 cups of tea a day have increased prostate cancer risk. This is one of the first studies bringing out negative effects of excessive tea consumption linked with possible prostate problems in modern men.

These are the conclusions of a scientific group from Glasgow University, and the scientists reported that they were pretty much surprised with their findings since tea is known as a healthy and very useful natural beverage. The scientists analyzed the data on over 6,000 men aged between 20 and 75 collected since the year 1970 in the framework of the Midspan Collaborative Study in Scotland. Mainly, lifestyle and nutrition habits of the men, including their daily tea consumption, were monitored. It turned out that 6.4 per cent of those who consumed too much tea have got prostate cancer, and in those men who used to drink 3 and less cups of tea a day prostate cancer incidence was as low as 4.6 per cent.

After looking closer at every participant’s details and taking into account other related factors like age, lifestyle, other health conditions, etc., it became apparent that heavy tea drinkers, or those who drink more than 7 cups of tea a day, have as much as 50 per cent higher prostate cancer risk compared to those who drink small or moderate amounts of tea. “I was surprised when we discovered there does seem to be a link. We found that with each cup of tea drank above seven cups, the bigger the risk of you catching the cancer,” said Dr Kashif Shafique, one of the study leaders and a leading experts in Glasgow University. The conclusions of this study were published by many world’s leading media in summer 2012.

Many experts consider the findings of this study to be very controversial. For example, the Tea Advisory Panel specialists are convinced that not drinking too much tea, but our bad habits like smoking, as well as bad eating habits and daily stresses contribute the most in increased prostate cancer risk in today’s men. Also, the specialists of the university’s Institute of Health and Wellbeing  have said that the data collected on 6,000 men in Scotland was not enough for making such kind of conclusions: in particular, there was not enough of information related to the lifestyle habits of the participants.“The study doesn’t show a cause and effect relationship between tea drinking and prostate cancer risk,” said Dr Carrie Ruxton, a famous American nutritionist.

Author Info: Hi! My name is Carla and I am a 5th year medical student at HYMS. I am interested in alternative medicine and I have done months researching the topic of herbal medicine. Besides, I like interviewing people and learning more about their experiences with one or another type of herbal treatments. I am willing to contribute to this site with my knowledge, and I would be happy to help you out to the best of my ability with any specific questions or problems related to alternative medicine.

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