It may be possible to reduce skin cancer risk with coffee and exercise. If recent research with mice can be applied to humans, a cup of coffee plus exercise each morning could reduce the risk of skin cancer. The research was done on mice. The animals were exposed to high levels of ultraviolet light which increases the incidence of melanoma. The researchers split the mice into four groups. One was given water to drink. Another group was given coffee with water. A third was given coffee with water and allowed to exercise on an exercise wheel. A forth group was allowed to exercise on their exercise wheel as well, but had no coffee. The results were recently reported to a Chicago meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. The report does not mention if the mice got organic whole bean coffee or regular coffee.

The fourteen week study produced a clear indication that one can reduce cancer risk with coffee and exercise, in the mice in the study. Mice that exercised and drank coffee had sixty-two percent fewer skin cancers than the water only group and skin cancers that occurred were nearly ninety percent smaller. By comparison, coffee drinking mice had a quarter fewer cancers and exercise-only mice had a third fewer cancers. Both of these groups also had smaller cancers than the “water only” group of mice. The researchers noted that the coffee and exercise group of mice lost weight and speculate that the reduction fat may be part of the answer to why these animals got fewer and smaller cancers. One might want to look at the beneficial effects of antioxidants in black organic coffee in this regard.

This study needs to be replicated in humans in order to be useful for you and me. However, there is already a large amount of evidence showing beneficial effects of coffee consumption. We know that more coffee or more organic coffee can lead to less diabetes . More organic coffee can lead to less colon cancer as well. The antioxidants in a cup of coffee are known to have a large number of useful effects on the human body. An antioxidant is a molecule that inhibits the cell damage and cell death in human cells. It does this by reducing oxidative breakdown of other molecules in the cell, a factor in sickness and aging. Antioxidants help prevent the damage caused by excessive oxidation and to a degree inhibit the aging process. Organic coffee antioxidants are in the same class of molecules that help reduce oxidation.

In the roasting process of organic coffee methylpyridium is created. This organic coffee antioxidant is a breakdown product of trigonelline. It has been found to increase activity of phase II enzymes. Doctors believe that these enzymes protect against colon cancer, which is the second leading cause of death from cancer in the USA. When comparing healthy organic coffee versus regular coffee remember that while regular coffee offers some of the same benefits regular coffee may have impurities that effectively cancel out the health effects of a good cup of organic coffee. Thus it is not surprising, at least in animal studies, that coffee helps reduce skin cancer in animals that are prone to the disease. The only problems that this writer can see is how I could get a human-sized exercise wheel with attached coffee holder in my home and how to keep the wheel from squeaking and annoying the neighbors!