(RxWiki News) Staying hydrated is not only important when exercising, it can save your life. Drinking a lot of fluids can reduce bladder cancer risk for men.
A new study analyzed data from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) over the course of 22 years to determine possible links between fluid intake and bladder cancer. For some men, drinking a lot of fluids on a daily basis can reduce the risk of getting bladder cancer.
"Drink plenty of water, it's good for you."
Researchers examined 47,909 male patients from the HPFS, which studied health professionals aged from 40 to 75 at the start of the study in 1986. The participants answered questions every four years about their daily fluid intake.
According to the analysis, drinking a lot of fluid, 2,531 milliliters or eight and a half cups, daily reduced the risk of getting bladder cancer by 24 percent in male patients.
Over the course of the study, researchers discovered that a high daily fluid intake and the link to reducing the risk of bladder cancer was stronger in younger individuals. Another interesting fact from the research was that as men aged they drank fluids less frequently, and in particular they drank less water.
The researchers did not offer an explanation for these results and more studies are needed to evaluate this association. According to Jiachen Zhou, M.B.B.S., M.P.H., a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at Brown University, one possible explanation was due to carcinogens being flushed out of the bladder before being able to cause tissue damage.
For Dr. Zhou, while there is no way to determine how strong of a link there is between drinking a lot fluids on a daily basis and reducing the risk of bladder cancer, Dr. Zhou does recommend drinking a lot of fluids in general. The Mayo Clinic recommends drinking three liters of water a day.
These results were presented at the 10th AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.
Research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
