That very hot drink could be doing you harm

Drinking very hot beverages is a proven risk factor for oesophageal cancer

- Wong Seng Weng

If you are drinking a piping hot cup of coffee while reading this, stop.

No, I don't mean stop reading, but stop drinking that very hot coffee. It may give you oesophageal cancer.

Many people are fond of drinking very hot coffee, tea or soup. That very hot sensation running down the throat and middle of the chest is strangely satisfying. That somewhat masochistic pleasure is perhaps best colloquially described as "shiok".

I, too, am guilty as charged. Unfortunately, that feeling may come at a heavy price.

How such simple and seemingly innocuous pleasures in life can bring catastrophic health consequences was brought into focus when popular 1980s Taiwanese singer Fang Wen-lin was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer.

The oesophagus is that part of the digestive system that connects the throat to the stomach.

She attributed the underlying cause of her cancer to her usual habit of drinking lip-scalding hot soup and her daily nightcap of a shot of Taiwanese Kaoliang liquor. She is probably right.

Oesophageal cancer, while not the commonest of cancers worldwide, is a fatal disease. The overall five-year survival rate for this cancer stands at a mere 20 per cent.

Oesophageal cancer is not among the top 10 commonest cancers diagnosed in the local population, but is ranked 10th in Singaporean men for cancer-causing death. In this context, men are three to four times as likely to develop this cancer compared with women.