New Study Shows Drinking Coffee Prevents Skin Cancer

If you love coffee, here’s another reason to go ahead and drink up. New research shows that drinking more than three cups of coffee per day can lower your risk of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), one of the most common forms of skin cancer.

The researchers analyzed data from the Nurses’ Health Study conducted from 1984-2008, and followed 72,921 participants. One of the lifestyle traits they measured was coffee consumption. What they found is that drinking three or more cups a day lowered skin cancer risk in women by 20% and lowered men’s risk by 9%—compared with those who drank less than one cup of coffee a month.

This adds to all of the other health benefits of drinking coffee. Drinking three to four cups of coffee slashes your diabetes risk by 33 percent. Coffee also reduces the risk of Parkinson’s disease by up to 80% and protects you from Alzheimer’s disease, improves concentration and alertness, and can even halt a full-blown asthma attack. 
 
While there are many reasons to enjoy coffee, there are some folks who need to be careful about how much coffee they drink. If you have high blood pressure or you’re pregnant or expecting to become pregnant, I’d recommend that you go easy on caffeine. And if you’re struggling with osteoporosis, limit your coffee intake to a cup every now and then—higher intake has been linked with a decrease in bone density.

Now it’s your turn: How much coffee do you drink? 

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