Health briefs: Java may reduce skin cancer

Your morning coffee might do more than jump-start your day. Researchers say that daily caffeine jolt might also reduce your risk of developing a type of skin cancer.

Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer, with nearly 1 million new cases diagnosed each year in the United States. A diet that contains even a small protective factor may have great public health impact, the researchers said.

"Our study indicates that coffee consumption may be an important option to help prevent basal cell carcinoma," said lead researcher Fengju Song, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of dermatology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The cold sore gene

Researchers have identified a certain gene associated with susceptibility to herpes simplex labialis, more commonly known as cold sores.

People who carry this gene may have more frequent and severe outbreaks of the small blister-like lesions that appear around the mouth, the new study said. The researchers noted that their findings could lead to the development of new treatments for the herpes simplex virus type 1, which infects 70 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

-- HealthDay