In welcome news for those who can't do without their daily cup of joe, a new study has linked coffee consumption to a decreased risk of mortality associated with liver cirrhosis.
In fact, two or more cups seems to be the magic number, and caffeine hits from tea don't seem to bear the same benefits. Nor did consumption of fruit juices or soft drinks. The study found that coffee was particularly beneficial to people who suffered from liver cirrhosis as a result of non-viral hepatitis.
"Prior evidence suggests that coffee may reduce liver damage in patients with chronic liver disease," said the study's lead author, Dr. Woon-Puay Koh of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore and the National University of Singapore. "Our study examined the effects of consuming coffee, alcohol, black tea, green tea, and soft drinks on risk of mortality from cirrhosis."
The study looked at 63,275 Singaporean residents aged between 45 and 74, who were asked about a range of lifestyle factors, including diet and prior medical history. The data was collated from interviews between 1993 and 1998, conducted as part of The Singapore Chinese Health Study. The longitudinal study continued for an average of fifteen years for each participant, with 14,928 deaths occurring in that time. Of those, 114 deaths were the result of cirrhosis. The World Health Organization has estimated that around 1.3 percent of deaths globally stem from liver cirrhosis, with the condition the 11th-highest cause of death in the United States.
The study found that those who consumed two or more cups of coffee per day had a 66 percent reduction in mortality risk, compared to non-coffee drinkers. It also found - in alignment with several prior studies - that those who consumed more than 20 grams of ethanol per day were at a higher risk of liver cirrhosis.
"Our study is the first to demonstrate a difference between the effects of coffee on non-viral and viral hepatitis related cirrhosis mortality," said Dr. Koh. "This finding resolves the seemingly conflicting results on the effect of coffee in Western and Asian-based studies of death from liver cirrhosis. Our finding suggests that while the benefit of coffee may be less apparent in the Asian population where chronic viral hepatitis B predominates currently, this is expected to change as the incidence of non-viral hepatitis related cirrhosis is expected to increase in these regions, accompanying the increasing affluence and westernizing lifestyles amongst their younger populations."
The study was published in Hepatology.
