- Registration Date 2016-06-16
- Hit 546
Health chiefs tell us coffee could keep cancer at bay: Consuming drink regularly may prevent certain types of disease such as womb and liver cancer
In a shock ruling, the cancer-research wing of the WHO will also reverse its previous finding about the dangers of drinking coffee.
In 1991, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) decreed coffee ‘possibly caused cancer’.
But after reviewing academic and scientific research carried out over the last two decades, the WHO will today announce that it is revoking its previous conclusion that the drink could cause bladder cancer.
Instead coffee will be reclassified in WHO rankings, meaning there is insufficient evidence to say it might even possibly cause cancer.
It will move from Group 2B ? in which substances are classified as ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’ ? into Group 3, for substances where there is no evidence of a link to cancer.
The ruling is likely to be a huge boon to Britain’s multi-billion pound coffee industry.
Coffee is drunk by 75 per cent of Britons, and it is also the most popular drink worldwide with around two billion cups consumed every day.
The rulings, revealed to the Daily Mail, come after experts from around the world met in France last month to re-evaluate the health risks of coffee.
They follow other recent research pointing to the health benefits of drinking coffee.
Last November, a study published in the scientific journal Circulation found that regular coffee drinkers had a lower risk of dying early from problems such as heart diseases, diabetes and brain conditions.
Scientists reported that the many compounds in coffee are known to help lower inflammation or insulin resistance.
For many years, drinking coffee was deemed to be unhealthy, with experts recommending people drink no more than five cups a day.
Much of that concern came from research in the 1970s and 1980s that linked the hot drink to higher rates of cancer and heart disease. The debate became a major topic in 1981, when two publications suggested coffee caused pancreatic cancer.
But crucially, say experts, the studies did not take into consideration that coffee drinkers are also more likely to smoke, possibly drink alcohol and engage in other behaviours that contribute to cancer and heart problems.
More recent studies that account for these factors are starting to find the opposite, showing that coffee drinkers might have a slightly lower mortality risk.
Scientists reported that the many compounds in coffee are known to help lower inflammation or insulin resistance.
For many years, drinking coffee was deemed to be unhealthy, with experts recommending people drink no more than five cups a day.
Much of that concern came from research in the 1970s and 1980s that linked the hot drink to higher rates of cancer and heart disease. The debate became a major topic in 1981, when two publications suggested coffee caused pancreatic cancer.
But crucially, say experts, the studies did not take into consideration that coffee drinkers are also more likely to smoke, possibly drink alcohol and engage in other behaviours that contribute to cancer and heart problems.
More recent studies that account for these factors are starting to find the opposite, showing that coffee drinkers might have a slightly lower mortality risk.
Division
Written by Risk Information Division