Recent study revealed how caffeine can offer protection against skin cancer. Research team led by Dr. Paul Nghiem, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Washington in Seattle studied the caffeine's effect on human skin cells in a laboratory that had been exposed to ultraviolet radiation.

Research team found that caffeine interrupted a protein called ATR-Chk1 in cells damaged by UV rays. This led the damaged cell to self destruct. Caffeine had no effect on the healthy cells.

Dr. Paul Nghiem said that ATR is essential to damaged cells that are growing rapidly and caffeine specifically targets damaged cells that can become cancerous.

Nghiem added: "Caffeine more than doubles the number of damaged cells that will die normally after a given dose of UV."

He said that people shouldn't increase the amount of coffee or tea they drink to prevent skin cancer.

Dr. Albert Lefkovits, a spokesman for the Skin Cancer Foundation and an associate clinical professor of dermatology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City believes that this study has proven that caffeine reduces the risk of skin cancer.