Contents:
- Medical Video: See What Happens When You Drink Coffee Everyday on an Empty Stomach - Benefits of Drinking Coffee
- What is melanoma skin cancer?
- The more coffee you drink, the lower the risk of melanoma
- How does coffee prevent melanoma skin cancer?
- Do we have to drink coffee to prevent melanoma?
Medical Video: See What Happens When You Drink Coffee Everyday on an Empty Stomach - Benefits of Drinking Coffee
Many of us often drink coffee in the morning as an encouraging ritual to start a full day of activities. Well, a recent study shows that it turns out the habit of coffee can reduce the risk of melanoma skin cancer, the most deadly type of skin cancer. How come?
What is melanoma skin cancer?
Malignant melanoma (MM) is one of the deadliest types of skin cancer and its incidence has greatly increased throughout the world in recent years. Many factors can affect a person's risk for skin cancer, malignant melanoma, such as exposure to ultraviolet (UV), skin type, skin color, genetic factors, and others.
Ultraviolet light is known to be one of the main factors that most influence the risk of malignant melanoma. Some food or nutritional factors including the amount of consumption of fish, vegetables and fruits are known to have a preventive effect on melanoma. Several other studies also reported that beta carotene and vitamins A, C, D, and E also provide a protective effect.
However, some of the factors identified above have only a small effect on reducing the risk of melanoma. Drinking coffee is believed to have a greater protective effect.
The more coffee you drink, the lower the risk of melanoma
To learn whether there is a relationship between the amount of coffee consumption and the risk of melanoma, Erikka Loftfield, MPH, from National Cancer Institute collecting data as many as 447,357 participants who did not suffer from skin cancer at the beginning of the study. Then the participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their food which included the frequency of drinking coffee every day. At the end of the study period there were 2,905 participants affected by melanoma.
The researchers found that the more coffee the participants drank every day, the less likely they were to get melanoma. Drinking four cups of coffee a day will reduce the risk of melanoma by 20 percent.
The researchers noted that the association was only found in participants who consumed caffeinated coffee, not decaffeinated coffee. In addition, drinking coffee only seems to reduce the risk of malignant melanoma, not melanoma in-situ, a condition in which melanoma cells have not spread beyond the outer cells of the skin.
How does coffee prevent melanoma skin cancer?
Caffeine in coffee has been reported to inhibit carcinogenesis or the formation of skin cancer due to UV light. Caffeine intake can slow down apoptosis or cell death damaged by UV light, increase the elimination of damaged cell DNA, and reduce inflammation so it does not become a cancer cell. In addition, caffeine can also inhibit metastasis or the spread of melanoma cancer cells. Therefore, increasing coffee intake is believed to prevent the development of melanoma.
Do we have to drink coffee to prevent melanoma?
Researchers believe that regular drinking of coffee has a major impact on reducing the incidence of melanoma. But the researchers also said that the results they found did not require someone to increase their coffee consumption for the sake of reducing the risk of skin cancer. The most important thing that can be done to reduce the risk of melanoma is to protect yourself from sun exposure and UV radiation.
Although many studies have shown the health benefits of coffee, it is important to remember that drinking coffee can cause insomnia, anxiety, palpitations, tremors, and abdominal pain.
