Numerous studies point to the many benefits that a daily cup of coffee can bring to overall health, and it appears that whether you prefer caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee, they are all associated with a lower risk of chronic liver disease and other liver diseases..
According to the Mirror newspaper, researchers at the University of Southampton and Edinburgh found that drinking any type of coffee reduces the risk of chronic liver disease and death from it compared to not drinking coffee, with the benefit peaking when drinking 3 to 4 cups a day..
The researchers studied data from 495,585 coffee drinkers from the UK Biobank and followed them for more than 10 years, while monitoring those who had chronic liver disease and related liver disease..
About 4 out of 5 participants drank ground, decaffeinated or decaffeinated coffee, while two out of 10 participants did not drink any type of coffee at all. Over the 10 years, there were 3,600 cases of chronic liver disease, including 301 deaths, 5,439 cases of fatty liver disease or steatosis (accumulation of fat in the liver), and 184 cases of liver cancer.
Compared with non-coffee drinkers, coffee drinkers had a 21% lower risk of chronic liver disease, 20% lower risk of fatty liver disease, and a 49% lower risk of death from chronic liver disease..
The researchers found that the greatest benefit was observed in the group that drank ground coffee, which contains high levels of coffeeol and cafestol, which have been shown to be beneficial against chronic liver disease in animals possibly because they protect the body from oxidative stress..
When it came to instant coffee, which contains lower levels of coffee and cafestol, there was a lower risk of chronic liver disease, although the lower risk was lower than that of ground coffee..
Dr Oliver Kennedy, lead author of the study, explained: ‘The benefits we see from our study may mean it could offer a preventative treatment for chronic liver disease.
