A U.S. study shows that drinking coffee combined with moderate exercise can lead to the self-destruction of cells damaged by medium-wave ultraviolet UVB, thereby preventing skin cancer.
Researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey, U.S., published their findings in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. The study revealed that the rate of apoptosis in mice that both drank coffee and exercised was significantly different from that of mice that did not. Apoptosis refers to the suicidal death of precancerous cells and is closely related to the occurrence and spread of cancer.
The researchers divided the mice into four groups: the first group drank caffeinated water, an amount equivalent to a person drinking one to two cups of coffee per day; the second group drank decaffeinated water and ran on a rotating wheel; the third group both ran and drank caffeinated water; and the fourth group neither exercised nor drank caffeinated water. All four groups of mice were exposed to UVB radiation that could cause sunburn and tanning.
The results showed that compared to the fourth group of mice, the UVB-induced apoptosis in mice that only drank coffee increased by 95%, in mice that only exercised it increased by 120%, and in mice that both drank coffee and exercised it increased by nearly 400%.
Data from the U.S. National Cancer Institute shows that skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, with more than 1 million new cases each year. Therefore, finding new ways to prevent skin cancer has received considerable attention.