Sunday, October 4, 2009

Coffee Health Benefits For Women

By Kirsten Whittaker

Coffee and tea drinkers rejoice - Because there are health benefits to be had.

Some new research agrees with your clever choice of drink!

So, it appears that women who drink a number of cups of coffee and tea each day could lower the risk of endometrial cancer, the most common cancer of a woman's reproductive organs.

According to American Cancer Society estimates for 2008, over 40000 women would have be diagnosed with this form of cancer; and about 7400 deaths were associated with this cancer.

The elements that increase the risk of this cancer are well understood.

Being overweight, getting older and being exposed to higher levels of estrogen, like early periods, infertility, late menopause and estrogen therapy afterward are all considered risk factors.

You may have heard that diet may also play a role, the risks though are less clear. This study sought solutions to the role popular drinks could play in cancer risk.

This hospital based, involved nearly 1100 women; 541 patients diagnosed with endometrial cancer.

It was shown that those who consumed coffee and black tea had a lower risk of uterine cancer.

Subjects who consumed 4 cups of tea of coffee/day had half the risk as those who didn't drink these drinks to have endometrial cancer.

Women who drank tea only (over 2 cups/day) had a 44% lower risk of disease. The reduced chance was for those who just consumed coffee (over 2 cups/day), at only 29%, though this figure was not considered statistically significant in terms of research.

The benefits for people who were overweight were less pronounced.

Those included decaffeinated coffee as one of the drinks they drank, but when they looked at decaffeinated coffee, there wasn't a link between the drink and the risk of endometrial cancer.

Cancer has been shown to help neutralize cancer causing substances.

And if it is not the caffeine that is helping to reduce the risk then other compounds may be at work. Coffee and tea have antioxidants, flavonoids, catechins and isoflavonoids that could also be helping to protect the body from cancer.

Your beverage choice is not a guarantee of protection despite the coffee health benefits and and should never take the place of proper diet and medical care, a healthy diet and other careful lifestyle choices.

About the Author:

No comments: