Prevent Skin Cancer With Caffeine?
September 2nd, 2011
For all the flack it receives, caffeine has some notable health benefits. It helps you form memories, keeps you alert, and may help prevent skin cancer.
Caffeinated beverage intake–coffee, in particular–has already been shown to decrease the risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer. This is because caffeine helps prevent tumor formation by inhibiting the expression
of ATR, an enzyme found in the skin. Therefore, scientists are now wondering if the same benefits could be accrued by applying caffeine to the skin topically.
There is no dearth of caffeinated skin products currently on the market, given caffeine’s ability to (temporarily) reduce the appearance of cellulite. Thus, given that caffeine seems to be safe for the skin, it should only be a matter of time before researchers probe its cancer-fighting properties.
