Apparently, three cups of coffee a day will do three things: speed up the digestive process to an uncomfortable degree, make you awake enough to actually do your job, and stop skin cancer.
One of those things is a surprise to people.
The science is preliminary, to say the least, but a survey of women found that heavy coffee drinkers, usually three or more cups a day, were 21% less likely to develop the most common form of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma.
Before you ask, decaf had no effect whatsoever on skin cancer. It did, however, make people whisper about your lack of intestinal fortitude behind your back 21% more often.
This isn’t a minor discovery, if it holds up. Basal cell carcinoma makes up 80% of all skin cancer cases. It doesn’t spread to other organs, so it’s rarely deadly, but it is, well, cancer. Furthermore, coffee seems to have other anti-cancerous properties, at least according to Wikipedia, which is always right.
But why? Theories abound, but some believe it’s got something to do with the caffeine. These “some” include that annoying coworker who tells you not to talk to him until he’s had his coffee, and then wonders why nobody wants to hang out in the morning.
image courtesy dyobmit on Flickr