Just saw this on Yahoo News:
(HealthDay News) -- Past studies have suggested that caffeine might offer some protection from skin cancer, and new research may explain why.
"We have found what we believe to be the mechanism by which caffeine is associated with decreased skin cancer," said lead researcher Dr. Paul Nghiem, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Washington in Seattle.
For the study, Nghiem's team looked at caffeine's effect on human skin cells in a laboratory that had been exposed to ultraviolet radiation. They found that in cells damaged by UV rays, caffeine interrupted a protein called ATR-Chk1, causing the damaged cells to self-destruct.
"Caffeine has no effect on undamaged cells," Nghiem said.
So just as I finally kick my caffeine habit, I learn that it was helping to stave off skin cancer? I have rotten, crappy Irish skin and need all the help I can get managing the damage I did years ago when I thought baby oil was the same as sunscreen. I guess I can either contend with heart palpitations or protect my skin. Hell of a choice! Can I say for the record? I hate the 40s. Everything starts to go!
Sorry to be so sporadic with the blogs. When I'm not working, I've been face first in the proofs for Love at First Flight. Good times!!
