As the saying goes, there is no separation between tobacco, alcohol and tea, but people often say that smoking and drinking are harmful to health, while drinking tea is beneficial. So the question is, can drinking tea offset the harm of smoking and drinking?
1. Drinking or smoking, which is more harmful?
Research teams from the Universities of Southampton and Bangor have conducted a joint study based on official data from the UK Institute and the Office for National Statistics. A comparative analysis of the risk of death caused by smoking and drinking found that:
Drinking a bottle of red wine a week increased the risk of cancer by 1% and 1.4% for men and women, respectively. This value is equivalent to that of men. 5 cigarettes per week and 10 cigarettes per week for women.
Consumption of 3 bottles of red wine per week (more than twice the recommended alcohol intake) increases the risk of cancer by 1.9% and 3.6% for men and women, respectively. This risk is equivalent to smoking 8 cigarettes per week in men and women 23 cigarettes per week.
Simple formula:
1 bottle of red wine=5~10 cigarettes
3 bottles of red wine=8 ~23 cigarettes
At present, many experts recommend Quit smoking and limit alcohol. One of the “four cornerstones of health” advocated by the World Health Organization, alcohol is a suggestion to limit, and smoking is a suggestion to quit completely. It is very clear which is the most harmful. Of course, this is not to encourage everyone to drink alcohol. Drinking and smoking are harmful! 1. Drinking alcohol, one bite will hurt the whole body
Alcohol has long been listed as a Class 1 carcinogen by WHO. >200+ health problems are associated with alcohol consumption, which poses health risks. Alcohol is one of the important causes of liver cancer, and it also increases the risk of breast cancer, esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer and other cancers. And alcohol will bring adverse stimulation to the cranial nerves, pancreas and cardiovascular, which can easily cause functional damage.
At the same time, long-term alcohol intake will also have an impact on normal life expectancy. Drinkers around the age of 40 drink >350g per week, and their life expectancy may be reduced by 5 years; the amount of drinking remains at 200 Between ~350g, life expectancy may be reduced by 2 years.
2. Smoking harms others as well as yourself
The smoke produced by smoking not only poses a threat to the health of smokers, but also harms the health of smokers. Let the people around you be forced to smoke second-hand and third-hand smoke. Smoke contains 69 known carcinogens. Long-term smoking can damage lung cilia, easily cause lung disease and even lung cancer, and increase the risk of esophageal cancer, throat cancer and oral cancer.
People around who are forced to smoke second-hand and third-hand smoke also have a 20-30% increased risk of lung cancer, as well as a significant prevalence of asthma, stroke and cardiovascular disease Add. In addition, secondhand smoke may affect children’s development and increase the risk of respiratory diseases.
Smoking and drinking will bring such a big threat to health, and drinking tea is a good way to maintain health. Is it okay to drink tea while smoking and drinking? Play a certain role in reducing damage?
Two, can drinking tea offset the harm of smoking and drinking?
It is true that tea contains some substances that have the effects of refreshing, anti-aging, improving immunity, lowering blood lipids, anti-inflammatory, anti-virus and anti-cancer, but this does not mean that drinking tea can offset the harm of smoking and drinking. Professor Li Liming’s team from Peking University School of Public Health has conducted a study on this subject. The study selected health data of 450,000 people and followed up these subjects for an average of 10 years.
The results showed that in people who did not smoke and drink less than 15g of alcohol per day, the overall risk of cancer and the risk of lung cancer, rectal cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer were higher than those who drank tea every day. does not provide protection. In addition, the incidence of cancer increased with the increase of smoking and alcohol consumption, and there was no significant relationship between drinking tea and drinking.
For people who smoke and drink, it is unrealistic to rely on drinking tea to offset the harm. The best way is to quit smoking and drinking.
89-year-old Chen Zongmao, the first Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in the field of tea research in China, Researching tea for nearly 60 years, he believes that tea does have health benefits, but he cannot promote that tea is medicine! The efficacy of tea should be viewed rationally. Academician Chen Zongmao said that tea has been proven to have a significant anti-cancer effect in animal models, but it has not reached a significant level in human epidemiological studies. Therefore, there is still a question mark on this effect, which is not clear. in conclusion.
Xiao Ai hereby advises people who smoke and drink to stop making any excuses for not quitting smoking and limiting alcohol. Drinking tea will not counteract the damage. It is recommended to quit smoking and drinking as soon as possible. Smoking and drinking are both risk factors for cancer. When cancer comes, our body will send out some “warning signals”. If these abnormalities can be found in time, early detection and early treatment can be achieved, which will improve the treatment effect and prolong the survival period. There are certain benefits. Three, these symptoms appear on the body, I hope you will stop smoking and drinking
1. Cough, chest pain
Early-stage lung cancer generally has no obvious symptoms, and most patients are discovered incidentally during physical examination. When it develops to the middle and late stage, the patient will have abnormal symptoms such as irritating dry cough, chest pain and shortness of breath. In addition to those who love tobacco and alcohol, for some long-term smokersFor smokers, asbestos workers, and patients with chronic bronchitis, regular chest X-rays, low-dose spiral CT, or lung cancer susceptibility gene screening are also recommended.
2. Feeling of a foreign body when swallowing
When esophageal cancer develops to a certain extent, it will cause patients to have obvious swallowing foreign body sensation, choking , the symptoms will appear repeatedly and intermittently, and some patients will have this symptom for several years. Gastroscopy is recommended for esophageal cancer screening.
3. Pain in the liver area
Right upper quadrant discomfort and pain are mostly the first symptoms of liver cancer. Patients will gradually develop symptoms such as abdominal distention, loss of appetite, jaundice and weight loss as the disease progresses. In addition, patients with hepatitis and liver cirrhosis themselves are high-risk groups of liver cancer. It is recommended to perform liver color Doppler ultrasound and serum alpha-fetoprotein examination regularly.
4. Epigastric pain, loss of appetite
The onset of gastric cancer is relatively insidious, and more than 70% of gastric cancer patients have no obvious symptoms in the early stage. When the lesions develop to a certain extent, patients will gradually develop abnormal symptoms such as indigestion, loss of appetite, upper abdominal pain, and many people mistake these symptoms for gastritis, gastric ulcer strong>, did not attract enough attention.
It is recommended that people who find these abnormal symptoms should undergo gastroscopy and gastric cancer susceptibility gene screening in time, especially those with chronic gastric diseases and gastric ulcers. There is a strong relationship between the occurrence of cancer and some bad habits in our lives, especially smoking and drinking, which increase the risk of many types of cancer. If you want to reduce the risk of cancer, quitting smoking and drinking as soon as possible is king!
References:
[1] “Drinking a bottle of wine is equal to smoking ten cigarettes”. National Party Media Information Public Platform. 2019.4.19
[ 2] “People who account for all three of smoking, drinking and tea must see it”. Beiqing.com. 2021.12.15
[3] “Drinking tea cannot offset the risk of cancer”. Global Net.2019.6.7