NEW YORK — Getting buzzed on coffee can reduce the risk of developing breast cancer among women who have a family history of the illness, new research shows.

Women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations — found frequently among Ashkenazic Jews — lowered their risk of breast cancer when they drank caffeinated coffee, according to a study of 1,690 women in four countries.

Women with the gene mutations who drank six or more cups of java a day cut their risk of breast cancer by nearly 70 percent compared with those who didn’t drink coffee at all, said the study leader, Dr. Steven Narod of the University of Toronto.

“We were getting a strong effect at pretty significant levels of coffee consumption,” Narod told the New York Daily News on Tuesday.

However, the benefits were seen only with caffeinated coffee and not with decaf.

“We think the effect is through the caffeine on the female hormones,” Narod said.