時尚雙語:小心熱茶致癌

The British Medical Journal study found that drinking steaming hot tea has been linked with an increased risk of oesophageal cancer.

Experts said the finding could explain the increased oesophageal cancer risk in some non-Western populations.

Adding milk, as most tea drinkers in Western countries do, cools the drink enough to eliminate the risk.

Tobacco and alcohol are the main factors linked to the development of oesophageal cancers in Europe and America.

Golestan Province in northern Iran has one of the highest rates of OSCC in the world, but rates of smoking and alcohol consumption are low and women are as likely to have a diagnosis as men. Tea drinking, however, is widespread.

The University of Tehran researchers studied tea drinking habits among 300 people diagnosed with OSCC and compared them with a group of 570 people from the same area.

Nearly all participants drank black tea regularly, on average drinking over a litre a day.

Compared with drinking warm or lukewarm tea (65C or less), drinking hot tea (65-69C) was associated with twice the risk of oesophageal cancer, and drinking very hot tea (70C or more) was associated with an eight-fold increased risk.

The speed with which people drank their tea was also important. There was no association between the amount of tea consumed and risk of cancer.

Drinking a cup of tea in under two minutes straight after it was poured was associated with a five-fold higher risk of cancer compared with drinking tea four or more minutes after being poured.

A large proportion of Golestan inhabitants drink hot tea, so this habit may account for a substantial proportion of the cases of oesophageal cancer in this population.

Previous studies from the UK have reported people prefer their tea to be about 56-60C--cool enough not to be risky.

Oliver Childs, a spokesman for Cancer Research UK, said: "Tea drinking is part of many cultures, and these results certainly don't point to tea itself being the problem."

"But they do provide more evidence that a regular habit of eating and drinking very hot foods and drinks could increase your risk of developing cancer of the oesophagus."

He advised tea-drinkers to simply wait a few minutes for their brew to cool from "scalding" to "tolerable".

《英國醫學期刊》刊登文章指出，喝滾燙的茶會增加患食道癌的風險。

專家表示，這一發現可以解釋爲何非西方國家的人們換食道癌的人數有所增加。

西方國家的人喝茶時習慣加牛奶，這樣可以明顯降低茶水的溫度，從而降低患癌的風險。

在歐美國家，抽菸和喝酒是導致食道癌的主要因素。

伊朗北部的格列斯坦省是食道癌發病率最高的地區之一。當地無論男女都習慣飲茶。雖然居民們抽菸喝酒的比例不高，但是男女的發病率均很高。

德黑蘭大學的專家們研究對比了300名食道癌患者與570名來自相同地域的普通人的飲茶習慣。

幾乎所有的參與者都有喝紅茶的習慣，並且平均每人每天至少飲用一公升。

與飲用較熱茶或溫茶（65度或以下）的人相比，引用熱茶（65-69度）的人患食道癌的危險性要高出兩倍。一旦水溫超過70度，患病的風險將增加八倍。

飲茶的速度在其中的作用也至關重要。而喝多少茶則於患癌無關。

在茶沏開兩分鐘之內就開始飲用的人患食道癌的危險性是等茶沏開後四分鐘或更久才喝的人的五倍。

由於格列斯坦省的居民有飲熱茶的習慣，所以當地患食道癌的比例一直很高。

先前針對英國人的調查顯示，他們更喜歡飲用的茶水溫度在56度至60度之間，這樣明顯降低了患食道癌的危險。

英國癌症研究的一名發言人奧利弗·查爾德表示，飲茶已經成爲許多國家文化的一個組成部分，很明顯，喝茶本身並沒有錯。

“但是越來越多的證據顯示，食燙物和喝熱飲的飲食習慣的確會增加患食道癌的風險。
他建議人們沏茶後等上幾分鐘，待滾燙的茶水降到適宜的溫度後再喝。