Drinking decaffeinated or regular coffee may benefit liver health, a new study finds.
There's good news for coffee lovers! Despite many studies advising people to cut down on coffee consumption, a new study finds that it may actually be beneficial for a person's health, especially the liver. The study was conducted by researchers from the National Cancer Institute. They found a strong association between higher coffee consumption and lower levels of abnormal liver enzymes. This suggests that chemical compounds in coffee other than caffeine may help protect the liver.
"Prior research found that drinking coffee may have a possible protective effect on the liver. However, the evidence is not clear if that benefit may extend to decaffeinated coffee," explains lead researcher Dr. Qian Xiao from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, in a press statement. "Our findings link total and decaffeinated coffee intake to lower liver enzyme levels. These data suggest that ingredients in coffee, other than caffeine, may promote liver health. Further studies are needed to identify these components."
For the study, researchers used data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 1999-2010), which included 27,793 participants aged 20 years or older. The researchers made note of blood levels of several markers of liver function, including aminotransferase (ALT), aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma glutamyl transaminase (GGT) to determine liver health.
Those who drank three or more cups of coffee per day had lower levels of ALT, AST, ALP and GGT compared to those not consuming any coffee.
Previously, researchers found that people who drank up to six cups of coffee a week experienced a 29 percent reduction in the risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer.
This is not the first study to highlight the role of coffee in reducing liver cancer risk. Last year, researchers from the Università degli Studi di Milan in Italy looked at 16 studies published between 1996 and 2012 and found a 40 percent reduction in HCC risk. An additional 10 percent reduction in HCC risk was found among individuals who drank more than 3 cups of coffee daily.
"The inverse association might partly or largely exist because patients with liver and digestive diseases reduce their coffee intake. However, coffee has been shown to affect liver enzymes and development of cirrhosis, and therefore could protect against liver carcinogenesis," researchers said, according to Huffington Post.
Only last week researchers highlighted that consuming two or more cups of coffee could reduce the risk of liver cirrhosis by up to 66 percent.
The findings of these study give rise to the question "how much is too much?" Considering most debates revolving around whether coffee is bad or not are based on the quantity of coffee that should be consumed, it seems like an important factor to consider in this study too.
According to a study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, drinking more than 28 cups of coffee a week is considered "too much."
Coffee has been subjected to both good and bad press. While it is said to have health benefits, including protecting against Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes and liver diseases, it has also been linked to obesity, hypertension and coronary heart diseases.
For most people, the health benefits of coffee outweigh the risks, according to Donald Hensrud, M.D. of Mayo Clinic.
According to a National Coffee Drinking study conducted by the National Coffee association, more than 83 percent of American adults drink at least one cup of coffee daily. Among regular coffee drinkers, the average coffee consumption in the United States is 3.1 cups per day.
Findings of the current study were published online in the journal Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.
