Ladies, if you love to drink coffee, then here's another reason to love it more. According to a new study, drinking 4 cups a day can reduce the risk of endometrial cancer up to 18%.
Also referred to as uterine cancer, endometrial cancer affects the cells that line the uterus or the endometrium. Some of its symptoms include pelvic pain, pain during sexual intercourse, abnormal discharge in the vagina that can be either water or blood, and bleeding in between periods.
According to National Cancer Institute, more than 50,000 endometrial cancer cases are diagnosed every year with around 8,000 deaths.
A team of researchers led by a research fellow at Imperial College of London Melissa Merritt studied the over 450,000 women with data coming from two big studies that are still ongoing. From the pool, they identified 2,800 women who had been diagnosed with endometrial cancer. They then monitored the kind of diet they maintained. They discovered that those who drank at least 37 ounces or about 4 cups of coffee every day have a lower risk of 18% than those who drank less. They didn't see the same connection with lowered risk and the other 83 different types of food and drink.
Merritt mentioned that she wasn't surprised with the results since similar findings can be obtained from studies that also deal with the link between coffee consumption and endometrial cancer.
The team wants to make it clear, however, that they have not established the cause-and-effect relationship between these two. But they believe that it has something to do with the coffee's ability to regulate estrogen. American Cancer Society mentioned that when a woman produces more of estrogen than progesterone, which then results to hormonal imbalance, the risk of developing endometrial cancer also increases. Another possible reason is that coffee has antioxidants that can prevent cellular damage.