Study finds more evidence of the benefits of coffee bean.

With more than a million cases of skin cancer reported each year, the search is intense to find the tools that fight this disease. Using sunscreen and being cautious of when the sun is at its strongest are the two most common caveats.

Now, researchers at Rutgers University say that drinking caffeine and exercising create a one-two punch against the disease, as reported in the July 31st issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The combination, they said, increases the positive destruction of precancerous cells (apoptosis) damaged by the sun's dangerous ultraviolet-B radiation. For example, when skin cells are overly exposed to the sun's rays, the DNA is damaged. That starts a process in which the DNA is self programmed (apoptosis) to destruct, although not all the cells do. Some become cancerous.

So far, tests have only been conducted on hairless mice but the protective effect was greater than the sum of the two, said Dr. Allan H. Conney of Rutgers. The mice were fed water with caffeine and had wheels to run upon. Some mice had both and a control group had neither. Those drinking caffeine had a 95% increase in apoptosis or destruction of damaged cells. In the laboratory tests, the mice that only exercised on the wheel showed a 120% increase, and the mice that had access to both the caffeine-laced water and running wheels showed nearly a 400% increase.