Tea drinkers have low skin cancer

People who unwind with a cup of tea every night seem to have a lower risk of two common forms of skin cancer. Researchers from the Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire, interviewed 770 adults with basal cell carcinoma, 696 with squamous cell carcinoma, and 715 cancer-free men and women of the same ages. They found that tea drinkers had a lower risk of developing squamous cell or basal cell carcinoma, the two most common forms of skin cancer. Men and women who had been regular tea drinkers - having one or more cups a day - were 20 percent to 30 percent less likely to develop the cancers than those who didn't drink tea. The effect was even stronger among study participants who'd been tea fans for decades, as well as those who regularly had at least two cups a day. However, the findings do not mean it's okay to bake in the sun as long as you have a cup of tea afterward. The researchers found no evidence that tea drinking lowered skin cancer risk in people who'd accumulated painful sunburns in the past. Nor did the study look at the relationship between tea drinking and malignant melanoma, the least common but most deadly form of skin cancer. Still, the findings support the theory that antioxidants in tea may limit the skin damage due to UV radiation. In particular, a tea antioxidant known as EGCG (Epi-Gallo-Catechin Gallate) has been shown to reduce burning on UV-exposed skin. Tea consumption was linked to a lower skin cancer risk, even with factors such as age, skin type and history of severe burns considered. However, tea drinkers who had suffered multiple painful burns in the past did not have a lower risk of skin cancer. It's possible that the antioxidants in tea are enough to limit skin damage caused by moderate sun exposure, but not the extreme effects of sun exposure, such as cancer-promoting damage to the DNA in skin cells.