Exercise and caffeine 'ward off skin cancer'
Coffee and exercise could help to protect the skin
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Tuesday, 31, Jul 2007 11:26
Exercising and drinking coffee could help the body to fight the harmful effects of the sun's rays, a study has suggested.
Although no substitute for sunscreen, the combination of the two was shown to help deflect damaging radiation known to induce skin cancer.
Researchers from Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, found in tests on mice that exercise and caffeine killed off precancerous cells whose DNA had been damaged by UVB rays.
Tests on groups of mice that had been fed caffeinated water and provided with an exercise wheel showed that they had a greater degree of apoptosis (cell death) of ultraviolet-B (UVB) radiation-damaged cells than mice with neither caffeine nor exercise (control group).
Compared to the control group, mice with just caffeine showed an increase of about 95 per cent in UVB-induced apoptosis; the exercisers showed a 120 per cent increase; and the mice with both showed a near-400 per cent increase.
"If apoptosis takes place in a sun-damaged cell, its progress toward cancer will be aborted," said Allan Conney, director of Rutgers' Cullman laboratory and one of the study's authors.
"The differences between the groups in the formation of UVB-induced apoptotic cells – those cells derailed from the track leading to skin cancer – were quite dramatic."
The researchers conclude that further research is necessary to understand how the combination has its effect.
"With an understanding of these mechanisms we can then take this to the next level, going beyond mice in the lab to human trials," Dr Conney added.