Drinking very hot beverages was classified as probably carcinogenic to humans<\/a> by the IARC in 2016. The IARC defines \u201cvery hot\u201d beverages as being at temperatures above 65 degrees Celsius, or 149 degrees Fahrenheit.\n <\/p>\n\n However, previous studies were mostly conducted in South America, Asia and the Middle East, where drinking cultures are a bit different, Papier noted.\n <\/p>\n
\n People in the UK often add milk to their hot beverages, for example, but the researchers found that the cancer risk did not change based on whether participants added milk to their drinks or not \u2014 provided the drinks were still hot.\n <\/p>\n
\n Papier added that the new study finds \u201cevidence from typical drinking habits in the UK,\u201d where \u201cmost people are consuming tea or coffee on a daily basis, and it shows that how we consume the drinks matters, and that the findings are also relevant in this Western population in the UK.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Relative risk remains low<\/p>\n
\n Despite the findings, the chance of getting diagnosed with esophageal cancer remains relatively low. The cancer makes up only 2% of cancer cases in the UK, where people have around a 1% lifetime risk of being diagnosed with it, according to Cancer Research UK. In the US, esophageal cancer is estimated to have made up just 1.1% of new cancer cases this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.\n <\/p>\n
\n However, \u201cfor anyone who does enjoy drinking hot drinks and they\u2019re worried about these findings, really a simple step is to let the drink cool down,\u201d Papier said, adding that a drink can be cooled down by letting it sit for a while, adding milk or cold water, blowing on it or taking sips.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere is prior evidence that hot liquids damage the cells lining the oesophagus and can cause inflammation, so there is a plausible explanation for the findings,\u201d epithelial physiologist Ian Johnson, an emeritus fellow at the Quadram Institute in England, who was not involved in the study, told CNN via email Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI am inclined to take the research at face value and conclude that it would be prudent for people to consume cooler drinks (less than 65\u00b0C) rather than hotter,\u201d Johnson added. \u201cIt sounds simple enough, but whether people who favour hot drinks can change their habits so easily is another matter.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n That being said, the researchers were not able to explore the exact temperatures of the drinks consumed by participants, who could have different perceptions of heat, and so could not determine whether the self-reported heat levels were likely to have corresponded with specific temperature figures.\n <\/p>\n
\n Physiologist Muy-Teck Teh, a professor of molecular oral oncology at the UK\u2019s Queen Mary, University of London, said in a statement released via the Science Media Centre that since the perceived drink temperatures were self-reported by the participants, and since the varying sensitivities of the participants\u2019 mouths to hot drinks were not known, \u201cthe results should be interpreted as robust associations rather than causal proof.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Papier said smoking remains the biggest risk factor for this form of cancer, which has higher incidences in Eastern Asia and Southern and Eastern Africa, where alcohol consumption and indoor air pollution are also likely contributing factors, according to the IARC.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 A study of nearly a million people has found new evidence to suggest that drinking scalding hot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[97],"class_list":["post-842873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}