Coffee drinkers twenty per cent less risk of prostate cancer
Harvard University has been involved in a research project into the effects of drinking coffee. The results have recently been published and it’s worth taking note because the figures are rather interesting.
What was discovered? The project took into account just under 47,911 men to see how their different levels of coffee consumption affected their health. The Harvard researchers discovered that the men that consumed more coffee, in this study meaning over six cups daily, had a significantly lower rate of developing prostate cancer – twenty per cent lower in fact, over a 20 year period.
The strange correlation does not end there. It seems that those who drink significant amounts of coffee had other advantages – the results of the study indicated that non-drinkers were sixty per cent more likely to develop a lethal form of the disease than those who drank significant amounts of coffee.
However, it transpired that those men who drank only a moderate amount of coffee on a daily basis (1-3 cups) also had an advantage over non-drinkers. The Harvard research results suggested they were thirty per cent less likely to develop the lethal form of the cancer.
The lead author of the study is cautious however. Kathryn M Wilson has acknowledged the evidence but has not yet gone so far as to advise men to consume more coffee – they are continuing to study the effects of the ever-popular drink. One issue which is worthy of note is that it does not seem to affect the statistics if the coffee drinking is decaffeinated.