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Tea lowers cancer risk

Drinking two cups of tea a day appears to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer

Drinking two cups of tea a day appears to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer sharply, according to a study in Sweden published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers followed more than 61,000 women from 1987 to 2004.

The women completed a 67-item questionnaire describing their food consumption.

The scientists then tracked the incidence of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer using the highly reliable Swedish national cancer and death registries.

Compared with women who rarely or never drank tea, those who drank a cup or less a day had an 18 percent lower risk; those who drank one cup per day had a 24 per cent reduced risk; and those who drank two or more cups had a 46 percent lower risk.

Susanna C. Larsson, a Ph.D. candidate at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the lead author on the study, said most of the tea consumed in Sweden was black tea.

"However," she said, "green tea may also be beneficial. Probably the more tea you drink, the better."

The effect was evident even after taking into account parameters like body mass, education, the use of oral contraception, and the intake of various foods and drinks.

The authors say the antioxidants in tea may explain the benefit.

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