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Hot Tea May Increase Risk of Esophageal Cancer
By: Madeline Ellis
Published: Monday, 30 March 2009
Habitual tea drinkers revel in the beverages’ likely health benefits. Hot or cold, green and black tea, brimming with disease-fighting antioxidants, trumps coffee for protection against heart disease, cancer, and possibly osteoporosis. But if you prefer your tea extremely hot, you may actually end up increasing your risk for throat cancer.
So says a team of Iranian researchers who traveled to the Golestan Province in northern Iran to find out why that area has one of the world’s highest rates of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), the most common kind of tumors of the esophagus. Inhabitants there don’t use much tobacco or alcohol, the primary cause of such cancers in the U.S. and Europe, but they do drink tea, often at temperatures exceeding 70 degrees Celsius, or 158 degrees Fahrenheit. Water boils at around 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
The team, led by Reza Malekzadeh of the Digestive Disease Research Centre at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, studied the tea-drinking habits of 300 people who had been diagnosed with OSCC and a matched group of 571 healthy people who lived in the same area. Participants answered questions about how they usually drank their tea (very hot, hot, warm, or lukewarm) and how long they let the tea brew before drinking it. Nearly all participants, 98 percent, said they drank black tea regularly, consuming an average of more than one liter each day.
While the researchers found no link between the amount of tea consumed and the risk of cancer, they did find that OSCC was eight times as common among those who drank their tea very hot (classified at 158 degrees Fahrenheit or above) and twice as likely for people drinking hot tea (above 156 degrees Fahrenheit), compared to warm (below 149 degrees Fahrenheit) or lukewarm tea drinkers. Drinking tea less than two minutes after pouring was associated with a five-fold higher risk for OSCC, compared with drinking it four or more minutes after being poured.
These findings lend support to the notion that scorching liquids may cause damage to the throat’s epithelial linings and lead to cancer. “In South America, especially Argentina, there is a well established relationship between esophageal cancer and drinking very hot mate, a kind of tea which is usually consumed when it is almost boiling and is sipped through a metal spoon. The problem is not the tea but the chronic inflammation from drinking it hot,” Michael Thun, MD, the American Cancer Society’s vice president emeritus of epidemiology, told WebMD via email.
Past studies comparing tea drinking in areas surrounding the Golestan province and in Linxian, China also showed cancer rates were affected by temperature, according to data cited in the study. Esophageal cancer numbers rose in regions where people preferred their tea very hot, and fell where tea was served at a cooler temperature. “It’s not tea per se; it’s really the temperature at which the beverage is drunk,” Paolo Boffetta, group head and cluster coordinator at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, said in a video released on the Internet by BMJ. “This has the potential to save lives.”
But gastroenterologists such as Dr. Jennifer Christie, an assistant professor in the Division of Gastroenterology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, aren’t entirely convinced of hot tea’s effects. “I think it’s an important study and it clearly adds to our knowledge about esophageal cancer,” she said. “But I would not tell people to stop drinking hot tea at this point. Also, there’s diet and you have to look at genetic factors that are involved as well.”
Cancers of the esophagus kill more than 500,000 people around the world each year. The researchers propose waiting 5-10 minutes before consuming a freshly poured cup of tea so that it doesn’t burn the tongue or throat. Editorialist David Whiteman, PhD., of Australia’s Queensland Institute of Medical Research, notes that while the findings should be replicated, letting hot drinks cool off for several minutes is a good idea. “It is difficult to imagine any adverse consequences of waiting at least four minutes before drinking a cup of freshly boiled tea, or more generally allowing foods and beverages to cool from ‘scalding’ to ‘tolerable’ before swallowing,” he writes.
The study appears in the advance online edition of BMJ, formerly called the British Medical Journal.
Rapid Weight Gain During Infancy Could Lead to Obesity
By: Madeline Ellis
Published: Tuesday, 1 April 2009
Everywhere you turn these days there’s frightening news about the obesity epidemic among American children. According to the latest statistics, an estimated 15 percent of children and adolescents ages 6-19 years are obese, and as that number continues to rise, so does the debate over its cause. Some argue that today’s kids stay indoors too much watching television and playing video games; walking less and generally living an unhealthy lifestyle. Others argue that children today are getting many more calories than in previous generations through an unfit diet of convenience foods. But researchers now suggest the risk of obesity may actually begin much earlier—during infancy.
Dr. Elsie Taveras of Children’s Hospital Boston and her colleagues from Harvard and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care tracked 559 children taking part in Project Viva, an ongoing Boston-based study of more than 2,000 pregnant women and their children. They measured each child’s weight and height at birth, at 6 months and again at 3 years. Even after adjusting for factors such as being born premature or underweight, the link between rapid infant weight gain and obesity by age 3 was “striking,” said an HMS release. According to the study estimates, an infant weighting 18.4 pounds at six months would have a 40 percent higher risk of obesity at age 3 than an infant of the same birth weight who weighed 16.9 pounds at six months. “There is increasing evidence that rapid changes in weight during infancy increase children’s risk of later obesity,” Taveras said in a statement. “The mounting evidence suggests that infancy may be a critical period during which to prevent childhood obesity and its related consequences.”
The study did not look at what causes rapid weight gain in some infants, but Taveras said excessive weight gain during pregnancy could be a factor. It could also be the quality of the diet after weaning or parents not responding to their infant’s hunger or satiety cues. Even beliefs that baby fat will go away could be affecting the way parents think about feeding their children. “There are a lot of parents who think children who top the growth charts are healthier than children who don’t,” she said. “The (study) results could really be a wake-up call that we might have some misconceptions about what healthy growth is.”
However, some pediatricians are skeptical of the findings. Dr. Samuel Grief, associate professor in clinical family medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago and obesity expert, said he wasn’t convinced that a child could be predisposed to obesity so young. “I take this as another piece of the puzzle,” he said. “Parents should model the behavior children will learn the rest of their lives—eat sensibly, with variety and with common sense, without developing obsessions.”
Dr. Nancy Welch, health director for the city of Chesapeake, said the study goes against traditional thinking that children’s weight is best addressed after children learn to walk, a point in time when they often burn off so-called baby fat. She said the study raises questions on the subject and hopes it encourages more study. “I think it’s wise to see what other studies show.”
On average babies double their birth weight by 4 months; triple their birth weight by 12 months and will be around four times their birth weight by 2 years. The most rapid period of growth is between 2 weeks and 6 months of age, after which the rate declines. “At present, most guidelines around obesity management recommend that we start assessment and treatment of children after the age of 2,” Taveras said. But “we need to start our preventative methods when children are much younger. Even in the first couple of weeks of life, we can start guiding parents about how to prevent rapid weight gain in their infants.”
The study is to be published in the April issue of Pediatrics.
Circumcision Shown to Reduce Risk of Herpes and HPV
By: Madeline Ellis
Published: Thursday, 1 April 2009
Parents welcoming their newborn son into the world have an important decision to make before they can take their little guy home: whether or not to circumcise him. Parents who choose to have the procedure done often do so because of religious beliefs, hygienic concerns, or cultural or social reasons, such as the wish to have their son look like other men in the family, but there are also potential health benefits. In children, circumcision can reduce the chance of urinary tract infections and phimosis, a problem with the foreskin. For teens and adults, the operation has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of HIV transmission. Now related research shows it may also limit the spread of two other incurable sexually transmitted diseases—genital herpes and human papillomavirus (HPV).
A team, which included researchers from Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. and Makerere University in Uganda, conducted two parallel clinical trials involving more than 5,000 uncircumcised Ugandan males ages 15 to 49 that initially tested negative for both HIV and herpes simplex virus type 2, which causes genital herpes. A portion of the men underwent circumcision before the study began while members of the control group were circumcised after a delay of 24 months.
During the two-year follow-up, the circumcised participants were 28 percent less likely to contract herpes and 35 percent less likely to catch HPV, compared to their uncircumcised counterparts. But circumcision had no effect on the incidence of syphilis. “Medically supervised adult male circumcision is a scientifically proven method for reducing a man’s risk of acquiring HIV infection through heterosexual intercourse,” said Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health in the United States, which funded the study. “This new research provides compelling evidence that circumcision can provide some protection against genital herpes and human papillomavirus infections as well.”
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the world. It causes genital warts as well as anal, penile and cervical (women) cancers. Genital herpes has been associated with an increased risk of HIV. The researchers are unsure why circumcision may lower a man’s chance of developing these diseases, but one reason may be because the foreskin of the penis has more receptors for the viruses. When that skin is removed during circumcision, the body is less susceptible to the diseases.
Currently in the United States, approximately 55 to 65 percent of all newborn boys are circumcised each year, down from more than 90 percent in the 1970s. In Asia, South America, Central America, and most of Europe, the procedure is uncommon. The study authors say that efforts to increase male circumcision in areas with high rates of sexually transmitted infections, especially Africa where HIV and HPV are widespread, could have a tremendous benefit. Since 2007, the World Health Organization and the United Nations’ program on HIV/AIDS have promoted circumcision for reducing the risk of AIDS in areas where heterosexual transmission is high.
In an editorial that accompanied the study, Dr. Matthew Golden of the University of Washington called for circumcision to be made widely available in North America. “For most parents, the default should be circumcision,” he said. “Obviously, these are complex decisions, and parents have to do what they think is right for their children, but there are significant health benefits.”
However, despite the growing evidence of its benefits, some opponents say the removal of the foreskin is an unnecessary surgical procedure that may reduce sexual sensitivity in adulthood. Neither the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) nor the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) endorse the procedure as a way to prevent the medical conditions mentioned previously and the AAP said previously that there was insufficient evidence to warrant recommending routine circumcision of infants. The group is now reviewing its position in light of recent studies.
“We hope these data will ultimately result in policy changes in recommending circumcision for young boys or adult men to decrease the rates of infection with HIV, HPV and herpes,” said lead author Dr. Thomas Quinn, a senior investigator in infectious diseases at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. “The cumulative scientific evidence supporting the public health value of medically supervised male circumcision is now overwhelming.”
They also note, however, that male circumcision is not completely effective in preventing sexually transmitted infections. Safe sex practices, including consistent condom use, are still necessary to provide the best protection, circumcised or not.
The new study findings appear in the March 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Source: HealthNews.com
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