Consuming two or more cups of coffee could reduce the risk of liver cirrhosis by as much as 66 percent, especially when the disease is a result of non-viral hepatitis.
About 1.3 percent of total death globally is a result of liver cirrhosis, a Wiley news release reported. About 29 million Europeans have chronic liver disease leading to 17,000 annual deaths; in the U.S. the condition is the 11th highest cause of death.
"Prior evidence suggests that coffee may reduce liver damage in patients with chronic liver disease," lead researcher, Doctor Woon-Puay Koh with Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore and the National University of Singapore, said in the news release. "Our study examined the effects of consuming coffee, alcohol, black tea, green tea, and soft drinks on risk of mortality from cirrhosis."
In order to make their findings the researchers looked at 63,275 Chinese study subjects who were between the ages of 45 and 74 and lived in Singapore. The participants answered questions about their "diet, lifestyle choices, and medical history," the news release reported. The patients were followed for about 15 years after the start of the study.
Over the course of the study there were 14,928 deaths; 114 of which were believed to be from liver cirrhosis. The mean age of death was 67.
The researchers found participants who drank about 20 grams of ethanol a day had a higher risk of cirrhosis than non-drinkers; on the other hand coffee drinkers were found to have a decreased risk of developing the disease. Those who drank two or more cups of coffee a day had a 66 percent risk of mortality from cirrhosis compared to those who did not drink the caffeinated beverage. Coffee intake was not found to be linked with viral hepatitis B related cirrhosis mortality.
"Our study is the first to demonstrate a difference between the effects of coffee on non-viral and viral hepatitis related cirrhosis mortality," Dr. Koh said. "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."
