Coffee and Exercise Helps to Beat Skin Cancer

Holy caffelatte! Coffee just became a health food. A new study conducted by researchers at Rutgers University suggests that a combination of
exercise and some caffeine – equivalent to one or two cups of coffee a day-  conspires to
kill off pre-cancerous cells whose DNA has been damaged by UVB-rays.
The Times of London reports on the research, which did not use humans, but hairless mice, whose exposed skin
is vulnerable to the sun. One
set of the naked rodents drank caffeinated water — equivalent to up to two cups of coffee for
humans — another voluntarily exercised on a running wheel, while a third
group both drank caffeine and ran. A fourth group, which served as a
control, neither ran nor drank caffeine.
All of the mice were then exposed to lamps that generated UVB radiation that
damaged the DNA in their skin cells. The Times reports that compared with the UVB-exposed control animals, the caffeine drinkers showed an
increase of about 95 per cent in UVB-induced apoptosis–a process by which  cells with
badly damaged DNA destroy themselves as a natural defence against illness
and infection. The exercisers
showed a 120 per cent increase, while the mice that were both drinking and
exercising showed a nearly 400 per cent increase.
Read more in the Times of London.