Coffee fights liver disease
Wednesday October 21st, 2009
Drinking
coffee may help combat serious liver disease caused by viral infection,
researchers reported last night.
Regular coffee drinkers successfully halved the rate at which they developed serious liver disease, according to US researchers.
The research involved patients with hepatitis C who had serious liver disease and had been unsuccessful in taking anti-viral drugs.
It is not known whether it could be applied to other forms of liver disease.
Researchers from the US National Cancer Institute studied some 766 patients over a period of nearly four years, asking them how much tea and coffee they drank.
Drinking three or more cups of coffee a day was linked to halving the rate of development of liver disease.
Researchers could find no benefit from drinking tea, green or black.
Researcher Dr Neal Freedman said: "Although we cannot rule out a possible role for other factors that go along with drinking coffee, results from our study suggest that patients with high coffee intake had a lower risk of disease progression."
Hepatology; Published Online: July 13, 2009 (DOI: 10.1002/hep.23162
Tags: Diet & Food | Flu & Viruses | Internal Medicine | North America
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