Caffeine Prevents Liver Disease

DC Jeff writes "The Washington Post reports that drinking two cups of coffee or tea daily may reduce the risk of liver disease. From the article: 'The study of nearly 10,000 people showed that those who drank more than two cups of coffee or tea per day developed chronic liver disease at half the rate of those who drank less than one cup each day.'"

That's because.....

[N8F8]

The other folks are drinking booze instead.

O Rly?

[SilentOne]

How many people in the study were killed off by high blood pressure before they had the chance to develop cancer?

There's the rub

[Irishman]

The study shows protection for people who drink too much, are overweight or have hemochromatosis (too much iron). Basically, anyone at a high risk of liver disease. Otherwise it doesn't seem to do much of anything.

So does this mean...

[parasonic]

Alcohol --> Bad for the liver
Coffee --> Good for the liver

Does this mean that Kahlua cancels itself out? If so, I'm going to get trashed tonight!!

With tradeoffs

[mr100percent]

And decaffeinated coffee was recently discovered to raise your LDL cholesterol, the bad kind. Always a tradeoff, eh?

Armchair doctors says:

[wonkavader]

Caffeine's a diuretic. I'll bet any diuretic will do the same.

Other effects

[Chris Bradshaw]

Ok, so you have less of a chance of liver disease... What about the diuretic effects, and effects on other organs?

Water loss leads impaired kidney function, and loss of vital nutrients, i.e., calcium. http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/columnnn/nn03110 3.html [colostate.edu]

So unless your the rare geek who staggers each $caffeinatedDrink with two glasses of water and a Flinstones vitamin - your on the loosing end. But what the hell, everything will kill you in one way or another...

What's in the drink?

[castoridae]

The article doesn't actually back up that it's caffeine that prevents liver disease. It simply shows that *coffee or tea* prevent it. I wonder what other common substances (besides water) they have in them that could alternatively be providing the benefits.

I think a good follow-on study might be to try caffeine pills vs placebos - although since we're talking about preventing disease rather than curing it, that study could take a generation or more.

Re:O Rly?--yeah, really

[hardie]

http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.660/news_det ail.asp [acsh.org]

Re:Sod That!

[geoffspear]

Why don't you try working 18 hour days for a month withoutcaffeine, and then come back and tell us if you really think it was the caffeine that wasn't doing your body any good.

Irish Coffee, for the best of both?

[billstewart]

Already one of the world's most perfect drinks, and now we find out that it has health benefits as well. Has there been any positive news about whipped cream's potential health benefits?

A.C. commented that it's probably because of the diuretic effects of caffeine making you drink more liquids, which was also my first guess. However, it could equally well be incorrect - caffeine tends to dehydrate you more than the liquid in the coffee or tea replenishes, so unless you're careful to make up for it with water or other non-alcoholic non-caffeinated drinks, you mostly tend to have less water in your system.

Re:Sod That!

[imstanny]

Exactly; Correlation and causation are 2 different things.

Even if there is a positive correlation (those that drink more coffee tend to have less cancer) that does Not mean that coffee is that catalyst in reducing cancer. Maybe those that are genetically less likely to get cancer share a trait where they also have a predisposed liking for caffeine.