Coffee reduces chances of getting breast cancer?
In Sweden the Karolinska Institute has been doing several studies on the effects of coffee – and one of the recent sets of published findings could be encouraging for women. Initial studies indicate that drinking coffee may reduce the chance of an aggressive form of breast cancer.
The study was carried out on almost six thousand women. It was noted that those women who drank more than five cups of the beverage could reduce the risk of this disease by about 50%. Caution is warned by other experts in the field, who claim that more evidence is needed, rather than relying on these preliminary findings. The Karolinska Institute is indeed carrying out more extensive research to these claims.
However, if the findings are substantiated to the satisfaction of the other cancer specialists, the results could be significant. The particular strain of cancer that is apparently affected by coffee is difficult to treat with drugs and sufferers often have to endure intensive chemotherapy.
The existing research results rely on women recalling their coffee consumption and critics have said that it is dangerous to form conclusive deductions by relying on memory. In addition, the women would not necessarily be able to reliably recount which sort of coffee they were drinking. Also, coffee has many compounds in it and it is difficult to identify which one is responsible for the alleged reduction of breast cancer risk.
Nevertheless, it is worth continuing the investigations to unlock the mysterious properties of coffee beans.