SEATTLE - Good news for coffee drinkers: That morning jolt might protect you against the most common kind of skin cancer. Slathering caffeine on your skin could be even better.
The University of Washington was part of a new study that discovered why it helps.
"In general, caffeine is also a sunscreen itself," said Dr. Paul Nghiem, of the UW. "It will block ultra violet rays."
In his lab, Nghiem studies caffeine. But he doesn't use a Grande drip in his research. Instead, it's a powdered version.
"This is probably equivalent of a few hundred cups of coffee right here," he said.
Inside coffee brews a powerful defense against sun damaged cells. Scientists found just drinking it can give your body a cancer-fighting jolt.
"And there is a lot of data including human data," Nghiem said. "Ninety some thousand women who were followed for many characteristics, and if you drink coffee or tea, for every cup you drink you have a 5 percent decrease in the risk of skin cancer. However if you drink decaf there is no such effect."
Nghiem now studies what happens when caffeine is applied directly to the skin, before and after sun exposure.
"What it actually does is cells that are damaged by UV that are attempting to divide. And those are cells that go on to potentially become cancerous, if they do that and the caffeine is there, it will make those cells more likely to die and be eliminated," Nghiem said.
So far that's how it works in the lab with human skin cells. And, with these promising results it shouldn't be long before you're slathering on a double-shot of caffeine-enriched sunscreen at the beach.
The study is published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
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