Coffee and liver cirrhosis

Posted on April 30, 2009
Filed Under Disease, Food & Drink, child |

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The consumption of large quantities of alcohol is the most common cause of liver cirrhosis in developed countries, a degenerative disease of the liver that can lead to death within a few years.

This study
Shows that a higher consumption of coffee reduced risk of alcoholic cirrhosis. The hypothetical mechanisms of this protection are not well established.

Besides alcohol, other potential factors that predispose to the development of this disease include genetic susceptibility, nutritional status, mechanisms related to the body’s defenses, snuff consumption, diet, and interactions with other toxins from the liver.

For several years we know the existence of an inverse relationship between coffee consumption and the risk of developing liver cirrhosis, mostly alcoholic home, ie coffee act as a protector against this disease. The hypothetical mechanisms of this protection are not well established and we have not clear whether this inverse association is most often associated with caffeine or other substances in coffee.

The authors of this paper-Coffee, cirrhosis, and transaminase enzymes studied more than 125,000 people of which more than 300 developed cirrhosis.

The results showed that higher consumption of coffee was a progressively stronger inverse relationship with the risk of developing alcoholic cirrhosis, ie higher consumption of coffee reduced risk of alcoholic cirrhosis. This relationship was not observed in cases of non-alcoholic cirrhosis. In the same way, it was observed that patients of coffee drinkers were less elevated liver enzymes, chemicals that occur naturally in the liver and is elevated in diseases such as hepatitis, especially of alcoholic origin, cirrhosis and many other diseases.

The authors conclude that their data support the hypothesis that there is some substance in coffee that protects against cirrhosis, especially alcoholic home.

What would be ideal to drink alcohol in moderation, but now we also know that coffee protects against cirrhosis?

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