Drinking coffee may raise risk of oesophageal cancer… but only if it’s piping hot, study claims

Research shows that drinking coffee may increase your risk of cancer…

Scientists think this is because the hot liquids damage the tissues in the esophagus – also known as the food pipe.

This means, in theory, that tea lovers could also be at risk.

Therefore, people should wait for their cup of coffee or tea to cool down before drinking it, experts advise.

Coffee is one of the most commonly consumed beverages worldwide, but there is mixed evidence on its health effects.

Some studies have suggested that the drink lowers the odds of getting cancer, while others – including the World Health Organization’s Cancer Research Panel – have found the opposite.

However, scientists say the truth is unclear because of how the old experiments were conducted.

Previous research often compared drinking habits to the onset of conditions such as oesophageal cancer.

But it has been unable to prove whether coffee drinking itself is responsible or whether general lifestyle factors are at play among fans of the drink.

Experts from the University of Cambridge have now attempted to overcome the previously observed obstacles using a different statistical approach. their findings are published in magazine clinical Nutrition,

They compared the genes of more than 360,000 people in the UK and Finland, and linked it to an increased risk of developing 22 types of cancer over 11 years.

They did this only for factors that could have skewed previous research.

For example, self-confessed coffee drinkers also tend to drink more alcohol, which may explain their increased cancer risk.

But the genes that are associated with coffee preference are not necessarily associated with lifestyle factors such as smoking or drinking.

Therefore, Dr. Steve Burgess and team say that looking at the DNA of volunteers makes it easier to determine whether this coffee in particular is causing cancer.

The data showed that people who were genetically more likely to drink coffee were almost three times more likely to develop oesophageal cancer.

No such link was found for any other type of cancer.

“The good news is that drinking coffee doesn’t make you more likely to get most types of cancer,” Dr. Burgess said.

Having the coffee-loving gene increased the risk in people who favored other hot beverages, along with actual coffee fans.

This suggested that the effects may be due to tissue damage caused by hot liquids rather than coffee.

Dr Burgess said, ‘The most likely reason for the association between drinking coffee and oesophageal cancer is that some harm is being done by scolding hot liquid down your throat.

This idea is supported by a previous study conducted in 2019 that found that drinking tea above 60C was associated with an increased risk of oesophageal cancer.

Scientists believe that when the cells of the food pipe are burned by a hot drink, it causes inflammation that damages genes, leading to cancer.

Further evidence is needed to confirm the findings.

However, the WHO concluded five years ago that it is safe if consumed at ‘normal serving temperature’ i.e. 65C or less.

Dr. Burges said, “It is important to consider that our study does not prove a cause link between drinking coffee drinking and osophazel cancer, it only provides strong evidence to give a suggestion.”

About 9,300 people are diagnosed with oesophageal cancer each year in the UK, which means it accounts for 2 per cent of new cancer cases.