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Science

Caffeine Reduces Skin Cancer In Mice 31

Posted by timothy from the wonder-drug-that-does-wonders dept.
idonotexist writes: "According to this news article, a skin lotion spiked with caffeine can reduce by more than half the number of cancer tumors on the skin of hairless mice exposed to brutal levels of ultraviolet radiation." Keeps you awake, wards off Alzheimer's, reduces cancer ... sure, I'll take a refill.
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Caffeine Reduces Skin Cancer In Mice More

Caffeine Reduces Skin Cancer In Mice

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  • The next thing I'm buying.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Incongruity ( 70416 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @05:39PM (#4144490)
    Is This. [thinkgeek.com]

    And to think, I laughed at Caffeinated Soap the first time I saw it...

  • Caffeine OR... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Incongruity ( 70416 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @05:47PM (#4144533)
    from the article: "A study suggests that a skin lotion spiked with caffeine or with another compound found in green tea"

    The thing to note is the "or ... another compound found in green tea." The headline of the article and /. story are maybe a bit misleading inasmuch as there are a large number of compounds in green tea besides caffeine, any one of which may be responsible for the results of the study being reported on...though the article claims after that quote, that it's a caffeine treatment, not a green tea treatment. Hmm...maybe the original journal article might make that clear...but assuming that it's a green tea based lotion (including, therefore, caffeine), then the story isn't so perfectly clear... More research will sort it out, sure, but it's just a bit early to jump up and start bathing in waterjoe or anything, I suppose.

    -inco

    • "The headline of the article and /. story are maybe a bit misleading inasmuch as there are a large number of compounds in green tea besides caffeine..."

      Actually, they were referring specifically to EGCG.. As stated in the article. =)
      • "Actually, they were referring specifically to EGCG.. As stated in the article. =)

        Hmmmph. You're right; I read the article too quickly. Thanks for setting me straight. I'll just go be embarrassed by my suckitude now.

        -inco

    • On that score.. seems there is lots of stuff good with tea. Remember the big news stories about a cup a day wards off alzheimers?...

    • reading the article reveals that the control experiements with caffein only produces the lowest risk, however another chemical was talked about, which produced a lower risk of your particular cancers being melanomas (the harshest kind of skin cancer). So the title is fine, and the other chemical is just the submitter author being lazy pasting in the first paragraph before the real author talked about the second chemical.

      Please read the article before posting.

      • So the title is fine, and the other chemical is just the submitter author being lazy pasting in the first paragraph before the real author talked about the second chemical.

        Please read the article before posting.

        Please read the series of comments before responding... I did, in fact, read the USA Tody article which is linked to in the submitted story, however, the USA today article is NOT the *original* article, which was a peer reviewed article in a scientific journal. Upon a second, more close reading of the USA Today article (as discussed previously in this thread which you failed to read before trying to karma-whore and simply repeat things in the linked-to article), I noted my mistake and misunderstanding. The point to grasp from this whole exercise, however, is that the USA Today article is poorly written and does in fact do a good job of being confusing on first blush. This also suggests to me that the author of the USA Today article may not have really fully read or grasped the journal article that they were reporting on.

        • it's often difficult to read the chain of comments when you are moderating them with the meta moderate function.

          I apologise if i hurt your feelings.

          In future try to read the article/s before you post, that way you won't be writing incorrect assumptions in the first place that you need to correct down the aforementioned chain. Also try not to be so easily flared, you made a mistake that would not have happened if you had put more thought into your responses, and hence would have stopped this entire saga of messages.

          Again I apologise if I have hurt your feelings. It can be noted that you can receive a far more furious response from other slashdotters for making even more mild mistakes. Simply asking other users to read related information before posting comments that require 2, 3, 4 or more futher corrections is totally reasonable, and is a common reply to messages that people stumble apon that lack validity that could have been found in a paragraph of linked information.

          If you can ask me to further explore the chains in the first place (which i will endeavor to do so), I most certainly can ask this of you.

  • "...hairless mice exposed to brutal levels of ultraviolet radiation..."

    Right. I've got the hairless thing almost down, but brutal levels of ultraviolet radiation?
    Oh yeah. I guess the next time I'm in orbit around Mercury without my space suit, I'll make sure to spill coffee on myself.

  • Skin Cancer and Caffiene (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26, 2002 @05:55PM (#4144585)
    I don't think geeks have to worry too much about that since we consume a crap-load of caffiene and don't go outside in the sun very often (primarily for us geeks that do not live in places that have a lot of sun).
    • For us geeks down under, we DO have to worry about about 'brutal levels of ultraviolet radiation'. It's not so bad now in winter (see here [bom.gov.au]), but mid summer will see extream UV between 10:00 and 15:00, which will easily toast us pastey geeks on our way to the local store for the latest CPU/GPU/RAM/HDD/etc.

      Now the question remains: how much coffee do I need to drink so that I start sweating caffeine?

      ...and will smearing oneself with Vegemite [vegemite.com.au] work as effectively?
      • mmm... Vegemite. /me hugs his bottle of Vegemite... (and swearing under his breath for posting the parent as an AC :)

        I'm not sure how much would be needed, but I think I'm safe after drinking a 6 or 7 shot caramel macchiato (or a 5 or 6 shot iced latte made from Black Tiger coffee beans).
  • Both caffeine and EGCG are known antioxidants and oxidizing compounds are known to damage cells via protein or DNA oxidative damage which can be an ingredient in cancer. It's just so damn spiffy to see a big cellular- or organismal-level oxidative damage response like this. I couldn't find the original PNAS article online; anybody know if it's available yet?
    • I was listening to something on PBS (fund drive time!) and the guy was saying to stop all caffeine intake, and instead to drink green tea, which has little or none, but also has a caffeine-blocking agent. Then again, I wasn't paying attention, and it could be just him wanting to sell more of his book or whatever.

      Sorry for being so dense, but... Do I really want to ask what PNAS stands for? Sure, "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" sounds just fine, but PNAS sounds... less-fine. :-) Say it loud!

  • Very dangerous. (Score:3, Funny)

    by infornogr ( 603568 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @06:17PM (#4144713)
    You'd have to have a lot of bawls [thinkgeek.com] to try something like this. We all know that a cup [thinkgeek.com] of caffeine is as dangerous as a red bull [thinkgeek.com]. Your best bet is to try the traditional methods of sun protection, the kind [thinkgeek.com] you apply to your skin. You should also wear clothing [thinkgeek.com] that provides lots of coverage. And of course, you can avoid the problem entirely by staying inside and just reading a book [thinkgeek.com].
  • At this rate, I'm waiting for the following:

    * When milk comes 'fortified' with caffeine, like it is with Vitamin D and salt is with iodine;

    * When *not* drinking coffee increases your insurance rates.

    * When companies ask you to take a urine test, in order to verify that you're drinking enough of the stuff.

  • Those coffee baths friggin' HURT.
  • As we all know, caffeine turns people into insomniacs who are up at all hours of the night.

    Perhaps the real explanation for this that the caffeine produced insomniac mice who get no sun.

  • The article (as well as this one [cnn.com]) suggest that it works by killing cells that would form a tumor.

    So what I want to know is will this work after exposure? Can this be used as a post sunburn insurance policy? Can older folks who got burned when they were young use this to reduce their risk?

    I am extremely pale, and though I have been pretty careful my whole life I still get burned, and all of my ascendants that lived past 55 have had some form of skin cancer. It would be great if this could still lower my risk, or help my parents!
  • "...a skin lotion spiked with caffeine can reduce by more than half the number of cancer tumors on the skin of hairless mice."

    Man, can you imagine how horrible the lives of those lab assistants must be? Think about spending your whole day rubbing caffeine-spiked mango hand lotion all over the little squirming bodies of hairless mice and you'll see what I mean.

    That must seriously mess with your love life, too.

    Psychiatrist: "So tell me Mr. Johnson, what seems to be the problem?"

    Patient: "OH GOD, Doctor, you have to help me!! Every time I try to make love to my wife, I keeping getting these flashes of RUBBING MANGO HAND LOTION ALL OVER HAIRLESS MICE!"

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