LONDON. June 19. KAZINFORM Men who are heavy tea drinkers may be more likely to develop prostate cancer, according to new research, BBC said.

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% higher risk of developing prostate cancer than moderate and non tea drinkers.

The team said it did not know if tea was a risk factor or if drinkers lived to ages where cancer was more common.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer amongst men in Scotland and diagnosed cases increased by 7.4% between 2000 and 2010.

Screening examination

The Midspan Collaborative study began in Scotland in 1970 and gathered data from 6,016 male volunteers, all aged between 21 and 75.

Volunteers were asked to complete a questionnaire about their usual consumption of tea, coffee, alcohol, smoking habits and general health, and attended a screening examination.

Just under a quarter of the men included in the study were heavy tea drinkers.

Of these, 6.4% developed prostate cancer during a follow-up of up to 37 years.

Researchers found that men who drank more than seven cups of tea per day had a significantly increased risk of prostate cancer compared to those who drank no tea or less than four cups per day.

The study was led by Dr Kashif Shafique of Glasgow University's Institute of Health and Wellbeing.

He 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."

"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."

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