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May 20, 2011
Prevention: Coffee Lowers Risk of Prostate Cancer, Harvard Study Says
By RONI CARYN RABIN
If that’s java in your cup, drink up. A new study says that men who are heavy coffee drinkers are at lower risk for prostate cancer.
As part of the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, Harvard scientists followed 47,911 men who periodically described their coffee consumption. The researchers found that those who consumed six or more cups a day were almost 20 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer over two decades than those who drank none.
More important, the heavy coffee drinkers were 60 percent less likely than the nondrinkers to develop a lethal form of the disease. Even men who drank just one to three cups of coffee benefited: They were nearly 30 percent less likely to develop lethal prostate cancer, the study said.
It did not matter whether the coffee was caffeinated or decaffeinated.
The study, published online on Tuesday in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is one of the first to link coffee consumption to a lower risk of prostate cancer. Coffee is a major dietary source of antioxidants, and other studies have suggested that drinking it is associated with health benefits including a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes.
“We’re not yet telling men to drink more coffee,” said the study’s lead author, Kathryn M. Wilson, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, “but there’s mounting evidence that if they do, they don’t have to worry about it.”
Prevention: Coffee Lowers Risk of Prostate Cancer, Harvard Study Says
By RONI CARYN RABIN
If that’s java in your cup, drink up. A new study says that men who are heavy coffee drinkers are at lower risk for prostate cancer.
As part of the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, Harvard scientists followed 47,911 men who periodically described their coffee consumption. The researchers found that those who consumed six or more cups a day were almost 20 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer over two decades than those who drank none.
More important, the heavy coffee drinkers were 60 percent less likely than the nondrinkers to develop a lethal form of the disease. Even men who drank just one to three cups of coffee benefited: They were nearly 30 percent less likely to develop lethal prostate cancer, the study said.
It did not matter whether the coffee was caffeinated or decaffeinated.
The study, published online on Tuesday in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is one of the first to link coffee consumption to a lower risk of prostate cancer. Coffee is a major dietary source of antioxidants, and other studies have suggested that drinking it is associated with health benefits including a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes.
“We’re not yet telling men to drink more coffee,” said the study’s lead author, Kathryn M. Wilson, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, “but there’s mounting evidence that if they do, they don’t have to worry about it.”