Researchers have found the more coffee you drink, the more you may protect yourself against skin cancer.

According to the a report in  the journal Cancer Research, drinking more caffeinated coffee could lower your chances of developing basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer.

From Nurses’ Health Study, 122,000 people participated in this study. 1/4 of them had developed basal cell carcinoma, but the more someone drank caffeinated coffee (more than 2 cups a day), the lower the risk of developing this cancer.

Tea, cola, and chocolate, also seems to cut a person’s risk. This shows that caffeine seems to be a key factor.

“I would not recommend increasing your coffee intake based on this data alone,” Jaili Han, associate professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, and an author of the study. “However, our results add basal cell carcinoma to a list of conditions for which risk is decreased with coffee consumption. This list includes type 2 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.”

Although coffee is now shown to decrease risk of skin cancer, more research is required to better understand why.

If you have any other skin concerns, make sure to consult your doctor and find out about specific treatments.