Caffeine, Exercise: Skin Cancer Prevention?

When it comes to skin cancer prevention, we know the basics: stay out of tanning beds, use SPF every day and wear a hat or stay in the shade during extremely sunny days. But what if the way to steer clear of the most common type of cancer was more than skin deep?

A combination of caffeine and exercise may help to cut the risk of skin cancer caused by sun exposure, according to preliminary research in mice that was presented on Tuesday at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting in Chicago.

Previous studies have found that caffeine and exercise are independently associated with lower skin cancer rates in mice that have been bred with susceptibility to the disease, but this is the first study to look at the combined effect of these influences. The researchers found that mice who benefitted from caffeinated water and an exercise wheel had a lower instance of skin cancer tumors -- and overall smaller tumors than those who had either just caffeine or exercise or neither.

Researchers exposed the skin cancer-susceptible mice to UVB radiation (the component of sun exposure that causes skin cancer) and then split the mice into four groups. A control group was given plain water and no exercise wheel, while another group also had plain water, along with an exercise wheel. The third group was given caffeinated water and no exercise wheel and the final group received both caffeinated water and an exercise wheel.

The researchers found that the fourth and final group of mice had 62 percent fewer non-melanoma skin tumors than the control group -- and among the mice in this group who had tumors, there was an 85 percent reduction in their volume by the end of the 14 weeks of treatment with exercise and caffeine. By contrast, the caffeine-only group, who did not exercise, had 27 percent fewer tumors than the control group and an overall 61 percent reduction in volume when compared to the control group. The group that received exercise but not caffeine had a 35 percent reduction in overall tumors and a 70 percent reduction in volume.

"I believe we may extrapolate these findings to humans and anticipate that we would benefit from these combination treatments as well," said lead researcher Dr Yao-Ping Lu, an associate research professor of chemical biology and director of skin cancer prevention at the Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy in a statement.

The researchers didn't investigate why there might be a link between caffeine, exercise and skin cancer tumors, but they found an additional association between both caffeine and exercise and reduced body fat. They also noted reduced markers of inflammatory response among the mice who ingested caffeine and exercised. Some research suggests that fat promotes inflammation -- and that inflammation could be associated with skin cancer.

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Comments

[Mickey1]

08:23 PM on 04/09/2012

Dr. Dianne Godar of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has conducted a study indicating that UVA light -- not the UVB light that causes suntans and allows your body to produce vitamin D -- may be responsible for the melanoma epidemic.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/03/31/The-Real-Killer-in-Sunlight--UVA.aspx

[onionboy]

03:55 PM on 04/09/2012

This explains all those Mountain Dew commercials...white kids running around and frolicking in the sun.

[NVBio]

05:53 PM on 04/06/2012

I work for a biotechnology company that does a lot of research into natural compounds in the foods we eat, and caffeine has actually been shown to moderately protect skin from the sun. Exercise and lower cancer rates have been seen in many studies. But there are many other compounds in foods and plants that protect skin from UVA and UVB rays much better than caffeine. In fact, there is a product that takes advantage of this too, called Sunsafe Rx. Sunsafe Rx is made from natural ingredients in foods that each have been clinically shown to protect skin from the sun. It's pretty amazing, and the fact that the product is healthy for you is great.

[gsp21]

04:55 AM on 04/06/2012

Not getting hit by a Bus can save your LIFE!

[Joe Joe P]

02:41 AM on 04/06/2012

Yes it says MAY so there is no real proof just someone being paid for rubbish again!

[Dreamweaver291]

01:48 AM on 04/06/2012

That's ok if you're a mouse..... Never seen a mouse drinking coffee and sun bathing. And don't forget it said MAY not will. Omg Huffenpuff get some new material....

[traibabes]

08:26 PM on 04/05/2012

Complete tosh!

A very dear friend of mine passed just 8 weeks ago due to skin cancer. She like a bit of sun like the rest of us, but not excessively. Never smoked in her life, drank only on nights out, exercised just as much as the rest of us. Ate a healthier than most diet, and drank coffee all her life (she hated tea!). She died before she was 49, leaving 3 kids and a grieving husband and many, many, many totally devastated friends (standing room only at her funeral!). If this is supposed to be the next health food fad, forget about it! Cancer in it's entirety is an evil insufferable disease, and until a proper cure is hit upon, will continue to affect anyone of us at anytime. All you can do is live as healthy a life as you possibly can, and hope that you can avoid it, because there are no hard and fast rules!

[wakyracir]

02:16 PM on 04/05/2012

I'm going to rush out tomorrow and buy a 6ft exercise wheel and a percolator. Or maybe just some Easter eggs.