Study: Coffee could shield liver from alcohol
damage
By
Carla K. Johnson
The Associated Press
Chicago
- Coffee may counteract alcohol's poisonous effects
on the liver and help prevent cirrhosis, researchers
say.
In
a study of more than 125,000 people, one cup of
coffee per day cut the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis
by 20 percent. Four cups per day reduced the risk
by 80 percent. The coffee effect held true for
women and men of various ethnic backgrounds.
It
is unclear whether it is the caffeine or some
other ingredient in coffee that provides the protection,
said a study co-author, Dr. Arthur Klatsky of
the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in
Oakland, Calif.
Of
course, there is a better way to avoid alcoholic
cirrhosis of the liver, Klatsky said.
"The way to avoid getting ill is not to drink
a lot of coffee but to cut down on the drinking"
of alcohol, he said.
The
participants ranged from teetotalers, who made
up 12 percent of the studygroup, to heavy drinkers,
who made up 8 percent. The researchers calculated
the risk reductions rate for the whole group,
not just the drinkers.
Not
all heavy drinkers develop cirrhosis, an irreversible
scarring of the liver that hurts the organ's ability
to filter toxins from the blood.
Klatsky
said the new findings may help explain why some
people's livers survive heavy alcohol use.
Hepatitis
C and some inherited diseases can also cause cirrhosis.
But the study found coffee did not protect the
liver against those other causes of scarring.
The
same study found coffee drinkers had healthier
results on blood tests used to measure liver function,
whether or not they were heavy alcohol users.
Coffee's
effect on reducing liver enzymes in the blood
was more apparent among the heavy drinkers in
the study.
Cirrhosis
from all causes kills more than 27,000 Americans
a year and sends nearly 400,000 to the hospital.
The
findings, published in Monday's Archives of Internal
Medicine, build on reports that coffee also may
reduce the risk of liver cancer.
The
data came from members of a northern California
health plan.
Their
coffee consumption was noted only at the beginning
of the study, which the researchers admitted was
a limitation. They were followed for an average
of 14 years.
The
researchers found no reduced risk of cirrhosis
for tea drinkers.
Tea
has less caffeine than coffee, and there were
fewer heavy tea drinkers in the study, so if caffeine
is the protective ingredient, an effect may not
have shown up for tea in the study, Klatsky said.