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Most people cannot think of starting their busy day at work without sipping on their favourite beverage, which is, a hot cup of tea.
A lot of people, at least in our country, cherish the habit of musing over chai (tea) and sutta (cigarette), while some of them prefer a puff while drinking alcohol.
If you are one among such people, you might consider giving up this habit for your own good.
According to a recent study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, drinking hot tea can increase the risk of cancer, if people also smoke and drink alcohol.
For regular smokers, who also consume at least one drink per day, drinking hot tea has been linked to a five-times higher risk of developing esophageal cancer, as compared to those who do not have any of these habits, mentioned the study.
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The study also found that drinking tea did not have a significant effect on cancer development, on people who neither smoked nor drank alcohol.
"We found that the association between high-temperature tea consumption and esophageal cancer risk was dependent on alcohol and tobacco consumption," lead author Jun Lv, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the Peking University School of Public Health in China, was quoted as saying by Time.
For the study, the researchers analysed data for more than 456,000 Chinese adults, between the age of 30 and 79, who did not have cancer at the beginning of the study. The people were studied for about nine years, during the course of which about 1700 people were seen to have developed esophageal cancer.
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The authors of the study speculate that hot tea may damage the tissue lining the esophagus, which could increase the chance of injury from other risk factors such as smoking and drinking. Another way hot tea could increase the risk of cancer was through the formation of inflammatory compounds, caused after repeated irritation to the esophagus.
Earlier in 2016, the World Health Organisation had also inferred that hot beverages, including tea, which are above 149 degrees Fahrenheit (65 degrees Celsius), may increase the risk of esophageal cancer.
However, the best way to stay safe, obviously, is to abstain from drinking or smoking.
