Drinking coffee may shield the liver from the ravages of alcohol, according to a long-term study released on Monday.
A study of more than 125 000 people found that the risk of developing alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver dropped with each cup of coffee they drank per day.
“Consuming coffee seems to have some protective benefits against alcoholic cirrhosis, and the more coffee a person consumes the less risk they seem to have of being hospitalised or dying of alcoholic cirrhosis,” said Doctor Arthur Klatsky, an investigator with Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research and the lead author of the study.
Researchers found that people drinking one cup of coffee a day were, on average, 20% less likely to have alcoholic cirrhosis. For people drinking two or three cups the reduction was 40%, and for those drinking four or more cups of coffee a day the reduction in risk was 80%.
“This is not a recommendation to drink coffee,” Klatsky said. “Nor is it a recommendation that the way to deal with heavy alcohol consumption is to drink more coffee.”
“The value of this study is that it may offer us some clues as to the biochemical processes taking place inside liver cells that could help in finding new ways to protect the liver against injury.”
Long-term, heavy alcohol use is the most common cause of cirrhosis in developed countries, which progressively destroys healthy liver tissue and replaces it with scar tissue.
Most alcohol drinkers, however, never develop cirrhosis and researchers believe other factors that may play a role include genetics, diet and nutrition, smoking and the interaction of alcohol with other toxins that damage the liver.
About 80% of Americans drink coffee, averaging 3,2 cups a day, the study noted.
The authors said they could not determine whether it was caffeine or another ingredient in coffee which had the protective effect.
Drinking tea had no impact on the development of liver disease, but the authors noted that tea typically has less caffeine than coffee and that it was an uncommon habit among the study participants.
The study was published in the journal of the American Medical Association’s Archives of Internal Medicine.
Klatsky and colleagues at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Programme in Oakland, California analysed data from baseline examination of 125 580 people between 1978 and 1985 who did not report liver disease.
Participants filled out a questionnaire to provide information about how much alcohol, coffee and tea they drank per day during the past year. Some also had their blood tested for levels of certain liver enzymes that are released into the bloodstream when the liver is diseased or damaged.
By the end of 2001, 330 participants had been diagnosed with cirrhosis, including 199 with alcoholic cirrhosis.
Among those who had their blood drawn, liver enzyme levels were higher among individuals who drank more alcohol, indicating liver disease or damage.
However, those who drank both alcohol and coffee had lower levels than those who drank alcohol but did not drink coffee, with the strongest link among the heaviest drinkers.
The findings do not suggest that physicians prescribe coffee to prevent alcoholic cirrhosis, the authors said.
“Even if coffee is protective, the primary approach to reduction of alcoholic cirrhosis is avoidance or cessation of heavy alcohol drinking,” they concluded. – AFP