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From: john@ur-tut.UUCP (John Gurian)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Tea
Message-ID: <265@ur-tut.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 2-Dec-85 21:23:25 EST
Article-I.D.: ur-tut.265
Posted: Mon Dec  2 21:23:25 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Dec-85 08:11:24 EST
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> > There is a
> > clear correlation between drinking bush tea and cancer of the
> > esophagus.  It's probably the tannins.  
> 
> Sigh, references, please.  Whatever the risk, it must be very small,
> for I have never seen any such a claim in the admittedly conventional
> literature that I habitually read.  I am open to being convinced otherwise.
> Convince me, please.

There is not, to my knowledge, a clear correlation between tea and cancer of the
esophagus.  What there IS, rather, is a theory that drinking hot tea (or any
other hot liquid, for that matter) may be a risk factor for esophageal cancer.
It has been shown that drinking hot tea (liquids) can raise the intraesophageal
temperature to dangerous levels, epithelially speaking.  Damage to the
epithelium would lead to increased cell division in the basal layer to make up
for the cells being sloughed off; this is a good environment for a neoplasia to
take root (that is, the high rates of cellular division & reproduction).

I believe that this rationalization was reached after empirical observations
that that some groups that drink lots of tea & coffee have higher than average
incidences of esophageal cancer, which is not a common affliction to begin with.

However, a study was done comparing two cultures (in Iran, of all places), one
of whom had a high esoph CA incidence, the other a low incidence.  Their diets
were quite different, but both diets contained tea.  This would tend to
disprove an otherwise logical theory, although the study was not done with this
question in mind.  At any rate, there is still no clear etiology for esophageal
cancer.

REFERENCE: Robbins/Cotran/Kumar : Textbook of Pathology, 3rd Edition (Big Red)

As ever,
John Gurian
University of Rochester School of Medicine
seismo!rochester!ur-tut!john