Persians/ Iranians boast about drinking boiling hot tea served right out of the kettle. But it's dangerous and can lead to esophageal cancer! Drinking hot tea can increase the risk of cancer. Combined with excess alcohol consumption, it also raises the relative risk of developing oesophageal cancer five times. Esophageal cancer has a very poor survival rate. The new tea warning emerged from China, where researchers followed the progress of 456,155 participants aged 30 to 79 for around nine years. Dr Canqing Yu and colleagues from the National Natural Science Foundation of China wrote in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine: "Compared with participants who drank tea less than weekly and consumed fewer than 15g of alcohol daily, those who drank burning hot tea and 15g or more of alcohol daily had the greatest risk for oesophageal cancer." They concluded: "Abstaining from hot tea might be beneficial for preventing oesophageal cancer in persons who drink alcohol excessively or smoke."
