Study: Coffee reduces skin cancer

Finally, something we are addicted to is good for us.

Before "Occupying" anything, this intrepid Michigan protester warms up with a hot cup of skin cancer medicine. (AP Photo)

Coffee, perhaps Ethiopia’s greatest discovery, has made is possible to attend morning classes and business meetings since the Middle Ages. Now, science is discovering medical benefits hidden in all that steamy deliciousness.

The Washington Post reports coffee drinkers are less likely to develop basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer.

A study conducted by the American Association for Cancer Research in Boston looked at 113,000 participants in two long-term health surveys. Researchers concluded that women who consumed more than three cups of caffeinated coffee a day had a 20 percent lower risk of basal cell carcinoma compared with those who drank less than a cup a month.

More than three cups a day sounds like a recipe for bouncing off walls.

For men, the reduced risk was more modest, just 9 percent, the Post reports.

Coffee researcher Juan Valdez could not be reached for comment.

Earlier, the Post’s Jennifer LaRue Huget reported coffee reduced the likelihood of stroke in women.

Despite scouring the Internet, I have found no similar good news about bacon or butter, but I will keep trying.