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TUESDAY, June 22, 2021 (HealthDay News) – Want to be good for your liver? Pour yourself another cup of joe.
British researchers report that coffee of all kinds can lower your risk of chronic liver disease.
Whether your java is caffeinated or decaffeinated, ground or instant, it makes no difference in its apparent power to prevent all manner of liver disease – as long as you drink three to four cups of it a day, according to the researchers.
“All types of coffee appear to protect against serious liver disease,” said lead researcher Dr Paul Roderick, professor of public health at the University of Southampton. “But more research is needed before we can recommend that the public start drinking coffee or increasing its amount for liver health reasons.”
He pointed out that this study does not prove that coffee prevents liver disease, only that there appears to be a link.
“You have to be careful extrapolating from observational studies to say that there is a causal relationship between coffee and liver disease,” Roderick said. “Other attributes of coffee drinkers may be associated with the risk of liver disease, and we may not have taken these into account.”
But the study adds to the evidence that coffee is protective, despite the different chemical makeup of various types, he said.
What is not known is what ingredients in coffee can protect the liver, he said.
“Coffee is a complex substance, and we don’t want to speculate too much about the different mechanisms,” Roderick said.
He said it’s not clear whether coffee can prevent liver damage in the first place or rather its progression to more serious forms.
“Given the global scale of liver disease, this is an important area of research,” added Roderick.
Rates of liver disease are rising steadily and are responsible for around 2 million deaths per year worldwide, according to the Journal of hepatology.
For the study – which received no funding from the coffee industry – Roderick’s team used data from UK Biobank on nearly 500,000 people with “known coffee consumption” who were followed. for a median duration of about 11 years. The median means that half was followed longer, half as long.
Seventy-eight percent drank caffeinated or decaffeinated ground or instant coffee, and 22% did not.
During the study period, 3,600 people developed chronic liver disease and 301 died.
More than 5,400 participants developed chronic liver disease or a build-up of fat in the liver known as fatty liver disease, and more than 180 developed liver cancer.
Compared to non-coffee drinkers, those who drank coffee had a 21% lower risk of chronic liver disease and a 20% lower risk of chronic liver disease or fatty liver disease. Their risk of dying from chronic liver disease fell 49%, the researchers found.
The greatest benefit has been seen in followers of ground coffee, which contains high levels of kahweol and cafestol, chemical compounds naturally occurring in coffee beans. Both have been shown to protect against chronic liver disease in animals. However, instant coffee, which has low levels of kahweol and cafestol, also reduced the risk of chronic liver disease, the researchers said, implying that there may be a complex relationship between various coffee ingredients.
Dr David Bernstein, director of the Sandra Atlas Bass Center for Liver Diseases at Northwell Health in Manhasset, NY, said several studies have shown that coffee is good for the liver.
“But this is the first study to show that the effect was seen in both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee drinkers and that ground coffee offered greater benefit than instant coffee,” he said. .
The British authors noted that coffee is readily available and that these results suggest that it may be a potential preventive treatment for chronic liver disease.
“I agree,” Bernstein said. “Although this study has some limitations, its conclusions are important and while further study of coffee as a hepatoprotective agent is needed, it may be time for doctors to consider recommending its use for patients at risk. chronic liver disease. “
The results were published online June 21 in the journal BMC Public Heale.
More information
To learn more about coffee and health, see what Harvard University offers.
SOURCES: Paul Roderick, MBBS, MD, professor, public health, University of Southampton, UK; David Bernstein, MD, chief, hepatology, and director, Sandra Atlas Bass Center for Liver Diseases, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY; BMC Public Health, June 21, 2021, online
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