14 DAY TRIAL // Other than the fact that the wonderful beverage helps many of us get up in the morning, and then brings us together, coffee has been recently proven to act against skin cancer, by suppressing one of its main causes, namely cells that have been affected by ultraviolet light. This type of light can cause severe damage to the skin, if people remain outdoors in a powerful sun without wearing sun screen, and is one of the main triggers of various forms of skin cancer. Coffee's active ingredient, caffeine, helps the human body kill these cells, and promotes cellular regeneration.
One of the main uses for this find would be the creation of caffeine-based creams, or various other ointments designed to serve a dual purpose – that of protecting the skin from the harmful effect of ultraviolet light, and helping it fight the appearance of the first signs of cancer. University of Washington researchers detail the exact mechanism through which caffeine acts on the skin in the February 26th online issue of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. The investigation has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a Career Development Award from the Harvard Skin Cancer SPORE, and by the Shiseido Corporation.
UW scientist Paul Nghiem, who is a member of the team behind the new paper, cautions individuals against starting to consume large amounts of coffee based on the information set forth by the study. “We are by no means recommending that people change their beverage habits,” he tells LiveScience. According to basic calculations, they would need to drink about 6 cups of coffee a day for their risk of developing skin cancer to drop by 30 percent. But ingesting that much caffeine can have other adverse effects, which are not worth the risk.
Instead, the researcher advocates the direct use of caffeine for the development of medical drugs of various types, which could help physicians and patients alike combat existing cancerous cells. Each year, more than 1 million new cases of skin cancer are recorded in the United States, with many other millions occurring worldwide. By further analyzing the effects of coffee and caffeine on the skin, experts are currently trying to determine the best method of administering coffee-based treatments to patients already suffering from the terrible disease.