Coffee, tea consumption might lower risk of cancer

New research reveals coffee and tea consumption might be protecting a person from cancers of the mouth, throat, head and neck.

"Even decaffeinated coffee had some positive impact," senior researcher Yuan-Chin Amy Lee said in a news release from the journal Cancer's publisher.

For this study, the researchers pooled in data from 14 prior studies involving more than 9,500 people with head and neck cancer and 16,000 healthy people, according to UPI.

It was discovered that people who drank more than four cups of coffee in a day had 17% lower odds of head and neck cancer, 30% lower odds of mouth cancer and 22% lower odds of throat cancer as compared to those who don't.

Meanwhile, consuming three to four cups of coffee a day was tied to a 41% lower risk of hypopharyngeal cancer, a type of cancer that occurs at the bottom of the throat and drinking tea lowers the chances of this cancer by 29%, researchers found.

Also, decaf coffee was associated with a 25% lower risk of mouth cancer, results show.

One cup of tea or less a day lowered risk of head and neck cancer by 9% overall.

However, drinking more than one cup of tea daily was associated with 38% higher odds of throat cancer. The increased risk can be due to tea promoting acid reflux in those who consume.

"Coffee and tea habits are fairly complex, and these findings support the need for more data and further studies around the impact that coffee and tea can have on reducing cancer risk," Lee said.