DonnaD,
Below is a summary of the COFFEE article, and a link to the full article (from Harvard)
I gave up smoking years before the BC hit. The first few months were rough - I wanted my burning drug, but I also wanted to quit. Talk about mixed messages. I gave up coffee at that time, because it seemed impossible to have a cup of joe and NOT fire up a smoke....
Somewhere around 6 months you will suddenly realize that the smoke demons have stopped screaming for a cigarette. Then it becomes easier. The gum tastes lousy, and the patches itch. And you are getting there ! You have come this far, it is easier to stay on track than backslide and start over; but you always have the option to start over and quit again. Studies do suggest that continuing to smoke leads to less desirable outcomes.
Eventually you get to the point of taking pity on the people standing outside the office in the snow sucking on a cancer stick. Been there.
Hang in there - quitting is worth the effort, even if we did not have BC, believe me. Been there too. Good Luck and success.
Best
Jack
BC and COFFEE
"The final protective measure is to drink more fluid. It seems intuitive that a high urine volume will dilute toxins in the urine and increase voiding frequency, both of which should protect the vulnerable bladder cells from carcinogens. But intuition can be misleading, and two small European studies reported mixed findings: French investigators did not demonstrate any benefit from a high fluid intake, but Spanish scientists reported that coffee appeared protective.
A large American study, however, was more optimistic. A 1999 Harvard study of 47,909 male health professionals showed that dilution may be a solution to the bladder cancer conundrum. All the men were free of cancer when the study began in 1986. Over the next 10 years, the researchers kept track of each man’s consumption of 22 different types of beverages as well as the occurrence of bladder cancers.
When the results were analyzed, the men who drank the most (averaging about 2 quarts a day) were 49% less likely to develop bladder cancer than the men who drank the least (averaging less than 1 quarts per day).
Although water was particularly beneficial, all types of beverages contributed to protection, including alcoholic and caffeinated beverages, which had been cited as possible risk factors in some earlier studies.
All in all, men can decrease their risk of bladder cancer by 7% for each additional 8 ounces of fluid they drink each day. In a sense, then, the bladder is like so many other parts of the body: the more it’s used, the healthier it stays."
From: Bladder cancer: Men at risk
Harvard Men’s Health Watch
Source:
www.health.harvard.edu/mens-health/bladder-cancer-men-at-risk