08/06/07 Skin Cancer & Coffee

There are many ways to keep skin cancer at bay, most having to do with shielding skin from the UV Rays. Since I have never been very good at staying out of the sun or covering up I am tickled pink as a sunburn over a new study showing that a couple cups of coffee a day can kill skin cancers cells, my only hang up with this great news is that the coffee must come after exercise to be effective. Ouch! New research posted on web MD revealed that one to two cups of coffee after a workout actually irradiates precancerous skin cancer in mice. Using little bald mice scientists discovered that the rodents that drank the equivalent of a couple of cups a coffee after they ran on the tread mill under UV rays killed more precancerous cells than the mice that enjoyed their cup of joe while sunbathing or even the "muscle" mice that hit the gym ( the wheel ) without coffee. While this is fabulous news for coffee lovers it's not so great for coffee drinkers like me who require a cup or two&.. or three before the thought of exercising ever crosses my mind.