Your daily cups of joe may be doing more than just giving you the energy to face the day.

According to a new study, which tracked nearly 113,000 adults over 20 years, women who drink three cups of coffee a day have a 20 percent lower risk of developing basal cell carcinoma — the most common skin cancer — than their non-coffee drinking counterparts. Male java-drinkers were nine percent less likely to develop the disease.

In general, the more coffee someone drinks, the less likely they are to get basal cell carcinoma.

The researchers aren’t sure why this is, but they believe it has to do with caffeine, since those in the study who drank decaffeinated coffee didn’t decrease their risk for basal cell carcinoma.

There are nearly one million new cases of basal cell carcinoma each year in the United States. It is rarely fatal, but often requires disfiguring treatment.

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