Coffee, or, better put, caffeine, could become a new weapon in the fight against skin cancer. Dr. Conney, Professor of Pharmacology at the University of New Jersey, and his team conducted clinical trials using a caffeinated lotion on mice.They exposed 90 hairless mice to high dosage of UV rays twice a day, for 20 days.
Then the mice were divided into three groups. One group was treated with caffeine solution, second one was treated with epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG solution extracted from green tea, and a third group wasn’t treated at all.
With large dose of UV rays all mice suffered skin cancer. Treatment with caffeine reduced cancerous tumors by 72% and non cancerous tumors by 44%. Treatment with EGCG reduced cancerous tumors by 66%.
Unlike sunscreen of SPF, which protect the skin by absorbing UV rays, caffeine acts directly on cells. Apparently caffeine is capable of blocking the genetic changes in cells, and it seems that caffeine acts selectively, only to diseased cells. If clinical trials confirm this discovery we can freely say that a new method for skin cancer prevention is discovered.
So let’s get this straight. The experiment was approved to sunburn these mice so badly that they would get cancer. Not only were they not treated for the severe burns right away, they were repeatedly exposed (and we all have experienced how painful re-burning a burned spot is). Then a group wasn’t ever treated. Hmm. I don’t care what we found out – this is cruel and should never have been approved.
Excellent point Heather! It’s shocking how cruel experiments on animals are. This mimics our unsustainable food system, which supports the mass slaughter of animals. In turn, we see the declining health of the consumers eating factory farmed meat.