I just made myself a cup of tea and sat down at my computer to work. Opened up the National Library of Medicine website (final destination, Medline/PubMed) and saw this headline under "Current Health News": Tea Drinking Linked to Lower Ovarian Cancer Risk.

Clicked through to Reuter's story:

Woman who drink two or more cups of tea every day may cut their risk of ovarian cancer in half, a new study shows.

Both black and green teas are rich in antioxidant chemicals called polyphenols, which have been shown to block cancer growth in lab and animal studies, Susanna C. Larsson and Alicja Wolk of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm note.

The paper was published in the current issue of Archives of Internal Medicine: Tea Consumption and Ovarian Cancer Risk in a Population-Based Cohort.

This Scandinavian study was large; 61,057 women participated with an average follow-up of 15.1 years. As with all studies--even large ones--confounding factors must be considered. In this case, tea drinkers also weighed less and ate more fruits and vegetables. Even considering these factors, however, the effect of tea on lowering the risk of ovarian cancer was significant in itself.

My tea tastes good--regular Lipton with milk, no sugar--even better knowing its health benefit. A good friend of mine died of ovarian cancer; in a couple of days it will have been ten years ago. I'll think of her when I make my second cup.