UPDATE: Just to be clear, these kinds of studies are often very limited, have many confounding risk factors and cannot “prove” anything. Science and even more specifically, epidemiology, does not prove things, it demonstrates a correlation, often finds causative effects (mostly not), but relies on statistical analysis every time. It would be relatively easy to find a group of prostate cancer sufferers who have never drunk tea, had loads of sex and avoided coffee and “prove” the opposite of what is in the headlines today, i.e. that tea reduces the risk while coffee and sex raise it. Indeed, there have been papers over the years that did just that. There is no definitive answer. If you like tea and sex stick with them, worrying about the risk might lead to cardiovascular problems anyway…
If you’re male and a big tea drinker, then you might have been worried by this week’s news that men who drink a lot of tea are at increased risk of developing prostate cancer. Women needn’t worry about their own health in this regard. I would post the links to the research, but I suspect it would be very easy to pick apart the work and find the flaws in their arguments, not least the fact that they’re inevitably talking relative risk increase and not absolute risk and that the difference is miniscule and could be due to countless other factors, as it almost always is.
Moreover, there have been several reports over the years that are much more palatable that report that sex and orgasm specifically actually lower a guy’s risk of getting prostate cancer. Well, we can live without tea if it really is as hazardous as they claim. It’s all about risk-benefit equations and weighting the balance to that more palatable positive I mentioned…
Actually, just for completeness: Tea research raises risk, coffee research shows a lowering of risk, sex research. But, there was a paper in 2010 widely report on the reduced risk from tea drinking too. So, who knows. Everything in moderation…except maybe that palatable option…