Drinking too much tea can increase prostate cancer risk, says study

Tea in large quantities can significantly increase prostate cancer risk, says a new study.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow found in a new study that men who drink more than seven cups of tea per day had a 50 percent increased risk of prostate cancer.

The study observed more than 6,000 male volunteers over a period of 37 years, said the BBC.

"Most previous research has shown either no relationship with prostate cancer for black tea or some preventive effect of green tea," said lead author Kashif Shafique of the University of Glasgow, according to QMI.

"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."

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Previous studies have shown the benefits of drinking tea, including reducing cholesterol levels and fighting cancer.

The new study took into consideration those benefits but still says that copious tea-drinking may be unhealthy.

"We found that heavy tea drinkers were more likely not to be overweight, be non-alcohol-drinkers and have healthy cholesterol levels," said Shafique, reported the Telegraph.

"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." 

The findings were published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer.