Drinking a lot of tea each day can increase a man's risk of developing prostate cancer, according to new research.
Health on Female First
A team from Glasgow University tracked the health of more than 6,000 male volunteers over a period of 37 years.
They found men who drank over seven cups of tea per day had a 50 per cent high risk of developing prostate cancer than moderate and non tea drinkers.
Whether this link is casual or die to coincidence is still unknown.
Study leader Dr Kashif Shafique, from the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow said: "Most previous research has shown either no relationship with prostate cancer for black tea or some preventive effect of green tea.
"We don't know whether tea itself is a risk factor or if tea drinkers are generally healthier and live to an older age when prostate cancer is more common anyway."
Participants aged between 21 and 75 were asked to complete a questionnaire about their usual consumption of tea, coffee and alcohol as well as their smoking habits and general health, and had to attend a screening examination.
Just under a quarter of the 6,016 men were heavy tea drinkers, consuming seven or more cups a day. Of these, 6.4 per cent developed prostate cancer over the next 37 years.
Dr Shafique continued: "We found that heavy tea drinkers were more likely not to be overweight, be non alcohol-drinkers and have healthy cholesterol levels.
"However, we did adjust for these differences in our analysis and still found that men who drank the most tea were at greater risk of prostate cancer."
Tagged in Prostate Cancer Black Common University Mens Health