It seems as though every day there is a new update on whether coffee is good or bad for you. Today’s news, brought to us by The Washington Post finds a good aspect of coffee. It seems that, “…people who drink coffee are at a reduced risk of developing basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer”. Patients who drank more coffee had a much lower risk of developing the cancer than those who drank less.
The research was conducted by the American Association for Cancer Research in Boston. Researchers looked at:
…coffee consumption and the risk of three forms of skin cancer — basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and the rarer and more deadly melanoma — among about 113,000 participants in two long-term health surveys. The data came out of the Nurses’ Health Study out of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Health Professionals’ Follow-Up Study at the Harvard School of Public Health. They found 25,480 incidences of skin cancer, 22,786 of the basal cell carcinoma, 1,953 squamous cell carcinoma and 741 melanoma.
Woman who drank three cups or more of caffinated coffee had their risk of developing basal cell carcinoma lowered by 20 percent. Men had their risk lowered by 9 percent. But as the article points out, “…those percentages add up, given that about 1 million new cases of basal cell carcinoma are diagnosed each year”.
Unfortunately, the consumption of coffee did not seem to affect those with the other two types of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. These two are the more dangerous cancers of the three. The study also did not find a correlation with patients who drank decaffeinated coffee.
What is important to remember however, is that those who have had basal cell carcinoma have an increased risk for squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. So, here at MoleSafe we say drink up!
A New Reason To Love Coffee
