The caffeine in coffee as well as in tea, soda and chocolate may be responsible for lowering the risk of Basal Cell Carcinoma ( BCC ).

A twenty year study has shown an inverse relationship between coffee drinkers and those who develop BCC.

“These results really suggest that it is the caffeine in coffee that is responsible for the decreased risk of basal cell carcinoma associated with increasing coffee consumption,” Jiali Han, associate professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston as well as the study’s lead author, said in a press release. “This would be consistent with published mouse data, which indicate caffeine can block skin tumor formation. However, more studies in different population cohorts and additional mechanistic studies will be needed before we can say this definitively.”

Along with sunscreen, limiting sun exposure and regular check-ups, caffeine could be an enjoyable way to help prevent skin cancer.

Warnings against sun exposure have overshadowed the risk of skin cancer caused by tanning beds.

Indoor tanning beds were officially classified as a human carcinogen in 2009 as are cigarettes and asbestos.

The findings indicate that frequent tanning-booth exposure will increase your risk of developing skin cancer.

Basal cell carcinoma, a slow-growing cancer, has traditionally been a disease of middle age. But it’s been appearing with increasing frequency in people under 40, especially in women — a demographic that also happens to like indoor tanning — suggesting a link. So researchers at the Yale School of Public Health sought to study the association.