By Cathryn Conroy, Netscape News Editor
Could a cup of coffee a day keep colon cancer away? That's the word from new research at Gifu University in central Japan, reports Mainichi Shimbun newspaper. Led by Hiroyuki Shimizu, the Japanese research team determined that just one cup of coffee daily cuts in half a woman's risk of developing colon cancer. The puzzle still to be solved is WHY coffee offers this protection. Clearly, it does something good to the large intestine, but more research is needed to determine exactly what it does. 

Beginning in 1992, the study followed the diet of 30,224 male and female residents of Gifu who were 35 and older and did not have colon cancer. Participants were divided into three categories: those who didn't drink coffee, those who drank less than a cup a day, and those who drank one or more cups a day. By 2000, 111 men and 102 women in the group were diagnosed with colon cancer. 

The results: The risk of developing colon cancer was cut in half for women who drank at least one cup of coffee a day. Interestingly, there were no statistically valid conclusions reached for men. Mainichi Shimbun newspaper noted that previous studies have linked coffee with a lowered risk of cancer.