Coffee May Protect Against Cancer
Coffee may do more than just wake you up in the morning. Drinking coffee has already been linked to reduced rates of ovarian cancer and kidney cancer, and in the most recent study, drinking coffee has now been shown to reduce the risk of developing neck cancer and head cancer by as much as 12 percent.
The news is good for those who can’t live without their morning cup of joe; according to the study, the more coffee one consumes, the more protection is offered against these rare forms of cancer. When more than four cups of coffee per day were consumed, the risk was reduced by nearly 35 percent.
The meta-study, published in the Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention medical journal, analyzed the results of nine previous coffee studies and accounted for other potential cancer-causing variables, such as smoking. The only head and neck cancer that coffee did not seem to have any affect on was cancer of the larynx, whose rates remained the same for everyone regardless of coffee consumption. The researchers believe the finding is important.
“Given the widespread use of coffee and the high incidence and low survival of head and neck cancers, it is important to conclusively establish whether the observed association between caffeinated coffee drinking and head and neck cancer risk is causal, as this would have appreciable public health relevance,” explained the researchers.
Decaf was also analyzed as part of the meta study, but offered none of the protection that caffeinated coffee offers, leading researchers to believe further studies may be necessary to determine whether the caffeine itself plays some part in coffee’s protective role or if it just acts as an agent to deliver the positive affect.
While the news is good for coffee drinkers, conclusive evidence will require further study. “Besides caffeine, coffee contains more than a thousand chemicals” explained the researchers. “In particular, cafestol and kahweol may reduce the genotoxicity of some carcinogens.” One in 10,000 will be diagnosed with head or throat cancer each year; while diet, exercise, and life choices are important, downing that morning cup of coffee might be better for some than popping vitamins.
Shadra Bruce is a Contributing Reporter for NewsByTheSecond.com
