Reducing Colon Cancer Risk

Soda drinkers and coffee lovers will be thrilled with this news. A recent review finds that taking in high amounts of coffee or sugared soda do not appear to raise colon cancer risk.
Earlier research findings have been murky where coffee and cancer risk are concerned, though sugared sodas have been reliably linked to obesity and other health problems that are thought to increase the risk of colon cancer.
In this latest review researchers evaluated 13 studies including more than 730,000 subjects from all over the world. The studies lasted from as few as 6 to as long as 20 years. Of the subjects, more than 5,600 were diagnosed with colon cancer.
Colon cancer rates vary widely between countries, and experts suspect that lifestyle factors may well play an important role
The team found that drinking more than 6, eight-ounce cups of coffee a day did not increase the risk of colon cancer. This supports earlier research into coffee drinking and cancer.
Nor did drinking more than 18 ounces a day of sugar filled sodas, though these beverages have been linked to increases in risk factors for colon cancer (such as being obese and having diabetes), but there’s been little direct research on the association.
The researchers note that the number of heavy soda drinkers in their work was Cdc Current Public Health Issues 2019 small, only 2% of the total, and this may well have impacted the results.
Surprisingly, there was a small but respectable boost (28%) in colon cancer risk for heavy tea drinkers (more than 4, eight-ounce cups of non-herbal Hospital Pharmacist Job Responsibilities tea/day). This too, the researchers caution, requires further study as there were not large numbers of subjects who drank that much tea.
The relationship is unclear at the moment, as tea is known to have antioxidants that are thought to help prevent cancer, but also polyamines that have been found to promote cancer.
The team also noted that their findings on cancer risk were not affected all that much by other factors such as smoking status, alcohol consumption and gender of the subjects.
In a commentary that appeared with the review, experts point out that sugar sodas are the drinks of choice for children in many countries, unlike either coffee or tea.
Sweetened beverage intake is generally lower among older people. These differences in exposure suggest that the intake of sweetened drinks may call for earlier intervention by health care professionals in order to ward off later disease.
According to the American Cancer Society, colon cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer related death in the U.S., though the rate has been going down (thanks to better screening and treatments) over the last 15 years. This is why, as uncomfortable as they might make you, regular screening tests are one of the best ways to reduce your colon cancer risk. When caught early, patients can expect a complete cure.