The esophagus connects the throat to the stomach; men over the age of sixty are mostly at risk from developing the cancer that forms in the tissue lining.
If caught early treatment is available although the prognosis is commonly very poor.
The results of recent research carried out on people living in the Golestan Province of Iran seem to support previous data suggesting a link between drinking very hot liquids and esophageal cancer.
This population has a very high instance of this type of cancer despite neither, drinking or smoking, the most obvious reasons seen as a factor.
These Iranians do however drink a lot of tea, which is why three hundred cancer sufferers were matched with an equivalent control group to trey to establish why.
The team of international scientists discovered that subjects that drank their tea at 150 degrees Fahrenheit were more at risk from esophageal cancer than those that drank it warm.
Further more if the temperature of the tea rose to 158 degrees a person was eight times more likely to develop the disease.
The data published recently in the British Medical Journal adds significantly to findings from previous research programs carried out in Argentina.
The latter has a tradition of consuming a particular beverage, at a high temperature through a spoon. Here too there are high rates from esophageal cancer, a disease that has heredity links.
Patients with a gastro reflux condition that develops into what is known as Barrett’s esophagus also face an increased risk to the cancer, which is usually diagnosed by a biopsy. The symptoms include difficult in swallowing which can sometimes be painful as well.
