Study Says Coffee Protects Against Cirrhosis 261
An anonymous reader writes "Good news for those who like both coffee and alcohol. In a recent study of more than 125,000 people an Oakland, CA medical team found that consuming coffee seems to help protect against alcoholic cirrhosis. The study was done based on people enrolled in a private northern California health care plan between 1978 and 1985." From the article: "People drinking one cup of coffee per day were, on average, 20% less likely to develop alcoholic cirrhosis. For people drinking two or three cups the reduction was 40%, and for those drinking four or more cups of coffee a day the reduction in risk was 80%."
So glad to hear (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:So glad to hear (Score:2)
Re:So glad to hear (Score:5, Interesting)
Put a krona (Swedish crown, a coin similar to a US quarter) into a coffee cup. Add coffee until you can't see the krona. Then, add vodka until you can see the krona again.
I have just one question... (Score:2)
Re:So glad to hear (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So glad to hear (Score:2)
She keeps mistaking my coffee for stew, so I guess we're even.
Re:So glad to hear (Score:3, Funny)
Re:So glad to hear (Score:2)
I used to have an Irish coffee when I designated drove. That was all the alcohol I'd get for a night (basically 1 shot of whiskey), and it wasn't that bad. It certainly helped cover up the nasty substance that bar passed off as coffee (cream helps a lot with bitter coffee).
Re:So glad to hear (Score:2)
Re:So glad to hear (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Justification/Rationalization (Score:2)
As far as this article goes, I'm probably in about the 120% reduction range. I keep waiting for coffee to be bad for me, but they have as yet to come up with anything. Damn my healthy lifestyle!
Fox coverage (Score:5, Informative)
This report proves coffee is good, and tea is bad
hmm.. perhaps Starbucks is involved somewhere..
Re:Fox coverage (Score:2)
Seriously, got a link? I mean, I've heard that tea has other, different good properties. If FOX really did report it this way.... ::facepalm::
--JoeRe:Fox coverage (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Fox coverage (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Fox coverage (Score:3, Interesting)
No! No! We must drink both coffee and tea.
Why you say?
So we can drink and smoke [sciencedaily.com]
Live long and party!
How about... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How about... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How about... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How about... (Score:2)
Re:How about... (Score:2)
Re:How about... (Score:2)
I ahve no idea where you get 10 dollars a day.
Drinking coffee != going to starbucks.
Drinking beer != drinking everynight.
The half life of caffine in the human body. If you go to bed at nine, just stop drinking coffee by about 2PM.
People who drink beers != drinking to excess or becomeng unihibited.
Please don't push your misconceptions about something you do not do onto others in some holier then tho way.
Re:How about... (Score:2, Funny)
Tell that to my Mother-in-law!
Re:How about... (Score:2)
Yow! That was not flamebait (maybe a little smarmy).
The correct response to a post you don't agree with
is another post stating the basis of your disagreement.
... or an 'All your base' post.
Re:How about... (Score:2)
That might be the most depressing thing I have heard today, and hope you were aiming for sarcasm, not insight.
Shedding your inhibitions is quite enjoyable once in a while.
Of course we don't need alcohol to relax but there is nothing wrong with occasional consumption if it leads to a few more laughs in life.
Re:How about... (Score:2)
I almost want to make that my sig. Man I wish I had mod points.
Re:How about... (Score:3, Funny)
There's something to be said about "breaking substance dependencies" being modded funny
Then again, those of us that live in glass houses....
Re:How about... (Score:2)
But then I'm a college student, so I guess I have a long road ahead of me.
Re:How about... (Score:2, Funny)
Yes the next step would be breast milk....
Re:How about... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How about... (Score:5, Funny)
Let's rephrase that.
Try and take them away, and I'll get my whiskey, smokes and coffee back out of your cold dead hands.
Soko
Re:How about... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:How about... (Score:2)
Public health risk?
Oh please, deal with it..
Re:How about... (Score:2)
Cigarettes are the only drug delivery system I can think of that delivers once, then keeps on delivering. Any smoker who promises to inhale (and retain) all the chemicals present in tabacco smoke has my permission to smoke wherever he or she wishes, as much as he or she wishes; it would become strictly a matter between the user and his/her health insurance company. My complaints don't begin until the smoker exhales.
How
Re:How about... (Score:3, Insightful)
This would be like a condensed version of the running joke with modern pharmeceutical products: Take one of pill A before bed to cure your insomnia. Then take one of pill B to prevent indigestion ca
More coffee = less acetaminophen = less liver dama (Score:2)
Here's why coffee might protect people from alcoholic liver disease.
Caffeine fights headaches (Anacin contains caffeine, btw).
More caffeine -> less headaches -> less taking of acetaminophen -> less liver disease.
Alcohol + acetaminophen is dangerous, alcohol induces CYP 2E1 which converts acetaminophen into a heptotoxin (NAPQI) which depletes glutathione, which causes liver damage.
N-Acetyl-Cysteine stops the liver damage too, it is used as a antidote to acetaminoph
Re:More coffee = less acetaminophen = less liver d (Score:2)
Of course (Score:5, Insightful)
What doesn't kill you today only makes you stronger - until they find out that it too can kill you!
Re:Of course (Score:2)
Feel free to make up whatever bullshit makes you feel good about yourself though.
Re:Of course (Score:2)
Re:Of course (Score:2)
Re:Of course (Score:2)
Re:Of course (Score:2)
Re:Of course (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.toddycafe.com/about/news_cooking_light
Thanks study (Score:3, Interesting)
Ah yes, but does the study conclude that if I drink a lot of coffee that I am entitled to drink a lot of alcohol now?
Re:Thanks study (Score:2)
Re:Thanks study (Score:2)
Certainly not always. Different drugs interact differently. Sometimes 2+2=4. Sometimes 2+2=7, sometimes 2+2=0. And sometimes, 2+2=150. Just ask my friend's 15 year old little brother, who ate some Adderall, huffed some hairspray, and exploded his heart.
Hooray (Score:2)
Re:Hooray (Score:2)
I heard alcohol helps to mitigate heart attacks.
Hey wait a minute...
Re:Hooray (Score:2)
All I can say is.. (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot Gesserit (Score:5, Funny)
I must drink beer.
Beer is the painkiller.
And beer is the little drink that brings total satisfaction.
I will drink my beer.
I will permit it to pass through me.
And where the beer has gone there will be nothing.
Only a hangover will remain.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion,
It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
The hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning,
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
Re:Slashdot Gesserit (Score:2)
Vodka?
Study with 21 year old data? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Study with 21 year old data? (Score:2)
Re:Study with 21 year old data? (Score:4, Interesting)
That being said, I also question that it should take that long to conclude on the data collected.
Re:Study with 21 year old data? (Score:2)
Arguably the most important part of the data (how many of the subjects went on to develop cirrhosis) could only be collected very recently. Were you expecting them to just guess how many would eventually get the disease?
Re:Study with 21 year old data? (Score:2)
It takes a while before you get cirrhosis. A short-term study wouldn't be very meaningful at all.
Re:Study with 21 year old data? (Score:3, Informative)
You do raise a good point, however: How do we know it's not something else that happened in that time? That's why you look at large numbers and correlations between those numbers. That's also why it's not absolute or definite. Coffee is linked to this, but it's not set it stone. More studies and experiments will need to be done to determine what, if anything, caused this condition.
Re:Study with 21 year old data? (Score:5, Interesting)
As is pointed out in the study, they don't know that caffeine is the cause. Coffee is loaded with all kinds of bioactive chemicals and it could be any of them. It could even be the cream or sugar people sometimes put in coffee. So the fact is, they have no idea why this is the case. What they'll probably need to do is kill a few hundred mice and rats with booze and coffee to figure out why and how it works.
As for the age of the data, it isn't really that old. It takes time to develop alcoholic cirrhosis and they're basically using historical data to determine who got it and who didn't and based on a questionnaire they filled out at the time of their enrollment in the health care plan, they were able to determine their coffee and alcohol habits. That said, a lot of alcoholics don't admit how much they drink on those kinds of things, so I'm not entirely sure how they can measure the accuracy. Alcoholics usually admit their drinking habits after the evidence is so obvious they can't hide it (like after they've developed alcoholic cirrhosis).
Re:Study with 21 year old data? (Score:2)
Which, by the way, is related to the bogus statistics on alcohol-related disease increases (especially cirrhosis) right after the repeal of prohibition.
Seems that cirrhosis was evidence of illegal alcohol use during prohibition. (And if you think the current drug war is extreme, it ain't NOTHIN' like its predecessor. Think "evidence of illegal drug use" to g
Re:Study with 21 year old data? (Score:2, Interesting)
But here are the actual absolute risk rates for alcoholic cirrhosis among the general population, as interpreted from the actual study (Archives of Internal Medicine 166:1190:Table 1)
No coffee: 0.16%
Less than 1 cup: 0.14%
1-3 cups: 0.18%
4 cups and more: 0.11%
Whet
Re:Study with 21 year old data? (Score:2)
Buzz Beer et al (Score:2)
Re:Buzz Beer et al (Score:2)
-matthew
Re:Buzz Beer et al (Score:2)
1 part tequila (good tequila makes it better, obviously)
3 parts Mountain Dew
I call it a "Margarita Douche".
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Cirrhosis specifics (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cirrhosis/DS00373 [mayoclinic.com] h osis [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_liver_cirr
Re:Cirrhosis specifics (Score:2, Funny)
And here's me, remembering from one of the Looney Tunes: Sir Osis of Liver [imdb.com]
The Joys of Coffee (Score:4, Interesting)
Further proof... (Score:4, Funny)
That's why before your first coffee of the morning, you feel bad. Then, you feel good once you've had your coffee. But by the time late-afternoon rolls around, you definitely feel like crap again and go for a beer. The beer makes you feel better until you go to bed. Rinse and repeat.
Re:Further proof... (Score:2)
Spanish saying: One drink is just right; two is too many; three are too few.
Non-linear dose effects have been understood in human culture since the advent of overripe fruit. I can't drink without balancing my electrolytes: one small cup of strong coffee for every two pints of beer.
Wait 10 days.... (Score:3, Funny)
Good Good! GOOD!!! (Score:4, Funny)
No negative effects@!!!!
NONE NONE!!!!
Caffine GOOD!!!!
Re:Good Good! GOOD!!! (Score:2)
Ohhhh... (Score:3, Funny)
Merely correlation? (Score:4, Insightful)
The most that this data proves is a correlation between higher reported coffee consumption and reduced cirrhosis-- and there are a ton of other reasons why that might be the case. Maybe heavy drinkers of alcohol tend to under-report their consumption of other harmful substances (like caffeine) out of guilt. Maybe higher caffeine consumption makes heavy drinkers drink a little less. Maybe coffee-drinking indicates a more white-collar lifestyle, which in turn might indicate better education and healthier life habits, any of which might itself be responsible for the diminished cirrhosis. As usual, the pop-sci treatment jumps to an easy causal conclusion that's far from being warranted by the facts.
Re:Merely correlation? (Score:2, Insightful)
The most that this data proves is a correlation between higher reported coffee consumption and reduced cirrhosis-- and there are a ton of other reasons why that might be the case. Maybe heavy drinkers of alcohol tend to under-report their consumption of other harmful substances (like caffeine) out of guilt. Maybe higher caffeine consumption makes heavy drinkers drink a little less. Maybe coffee-drinking indicates a more white-collar lifestyle, which in turn might indicate better educati
Re:Merely correlation? (Score:2)
Hmmm
Anyway, fact is that correlation does hint at causation. Problem is that the causation could go either direction, and there are usually a number of other factors innvolved. All too often, both of the c
Well duh! (Score:5, Funny)
If you're drinking two cups of coffee with your Cheerios at breakfast, that's two Martinis that you're not drinking with your Cheerios at breakfast.
-
Re:Well duh! (Score:2)
Right, I can save 'em for lunch!
(or are you saying that the coffee is cancelling out the two Martinis with breakfast? If so, more power to ya!)
old news (Score:2)
That's not all it does... (Score:2)
Re:That's not all it does... (Score:2)
Re:That's not all it does... (Score:2)
Please note tea does not work (Score:2, Funny)
Doc: Nurse, this man's liver is failing! Get him four cups of coffee, strong and black!
Nurse: But, Doctor, he's caffeine intolerant - it says it interacts with his other meds.
Doc: Oh, ok, in that case, give it to me, I'll drink it.
Confluence (Score:2)
The ultimate solution (Score:2)
So this is what passes for science nowadays? (Score:2, Insightful)
And 20% is nothing with a s
Re:So this is what passes for science nowadays? (Score:2)
Uh... what's that? You're supposed to drink a few liters of water pet day but if you drink 4 cups (~1 liter) of COFFEE, then you're filled up and can't drink nor eat anything else? I'll tell ya who has room for alcohol, even right after 4 coffees. There's that mechanism that evacuates unneeded fluids through your, erm.. noodly appendage. Try to take a piss sometime, you might actualy enjoy it.
What the coffee is really doing (Score:2, Interesting)
There is a great bo
Have to update the old joke (Score:3, Funny)
Q: What do you get when you feed coffee to a drunk?
A: A wide-awake drunk (with a healthy liver.)
Cheers! (Score:2, Funny)
Simple - more coffee - less beer (Score:2)
Re:for alcoholics (Score:5, Funny)
Signed,
- An Alcoholic
Re:for alcoholics (Score:2, Funny)
Frink: (With sarcasm detector) Are you kidding? This baby is off
the charts mm-hai.
CBG: A sarcasm detector, that's a real useful invention.
(Sarcasm detector explodes)
Re:for alcoholics (Score:2)
Re:Back we are (Score:2)
Re:A possible explanation (Score:2)
Hadn't heard that for EG but had for methanol poisoning. Get REALLY drunk on GOOD booze (or really pure grain alcohol diluted to non-dehydrating concentrations - but NOT lab absolute alcohol, which is contaminated with benzene) for several days - avoid blindness and greatly reduce optic and other nerve damage.