(UPI) CHICAGO, Dec. 13, 2005 -- Women who drink two cups of tea every day have about half the risk of contracting ovarian cancer, Swedish researchers say.

Those who drink even part of a cup of tea each day reduce their ovarian cancer risk, say researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Medicine in Stockholm.

"We observed a 46 percent lower risk of ovarian cancer in women who drank two or more cups of tea per day compared with non-drinkers," said authors Susanna Larsson and Alicja Wolk. "Each additional cup of tea per day was associated with an 18 percent lower risk of ovarian cancer."

The researchers reached the conclusion based on questionnaires filled out by 61,057 women in the Swedish Mammography Cohort, whose health was followed for 15 years.

Sixty-eight percent of the group reported drinking tea -- mainly black tea -- at least once a month.

Larsson and Wolk said in the Chicago-based Archives of Internal Medicine that more research is needed to verify their results.

"Tea first. Then be ready."

-Twin Peaks
Episode 5