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Drinking coffee daily could mean a major decrease in the risk of melanoma

Coffee drinkers could be lowering their chances of getting melanoma, the deadliest form of skin […]

Coffee drinkers could be lowering their chances of getting melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, with each cup. Those of us who need a kick of caffeine throughout the work day will take what we can get in terms of random health benefits – even if we do spend most hours of the weekdays indoors…

A new study published Jan. 20 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute shows that these new findings go beyond what was previously observed with other, less threatening forms of skin cancer. Melanoma is the fifth most common form of cancer.

“We found that four or more cups of coffee per day was associated with about a 20 percent reduced risk of malignant melanoma,” said lead author Erikka Loftfield, a doctoral student at Yale University School of Public Health who is completing her dissertation work at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

WebMD explained how the researchers gathered the data:

The researchers gathered data from a study run by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and AARP. A food questionnaire was sent to 3.5 million AARP members living in six states: California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania; as well as two cities, Atlanta and Detroit. The questionnaire yielded coffee drinking info for nearly 447,400 white seniors in 1995 and 1996, and researchers followed up with the participants for about 10 years on average.

All of the participants were cancer-free when they were initial surveyed, and the researchers took into account any other cancer risks that could affect the risk of melanoma. Coffee drinkers ended up with lower risk than those that drank little or none of the beverage. The amount of consumption was a key component – the more the better – but it isn’t exactly clear whether it’s the coffee exactly or just the caffeine.

“Coffee has been around the block several times in a variety of cancers, in terms of whether it increases or decreases risk,” Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said, noting that the findings have been very mixed.

Obviously findings like this are interesting and offer potentially good news for coffee drinkers, but increasing your daily intake of brew isn’t really a practical strategy to thwart off skin cancer.

“The main message really is that sun and [ultraviolet] radiation exposure are the major risk factors for melanoma,” Loftfield said. “It is important to study other factors to better understand the cause of this disease, but we must keep these major risk factors in mind.”

[Photo from Flickr user trophygeek]

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