What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you fall in love with a specific food or drink? If you’re really more into having a healthy life, then you’ll indeed think of the benefits that it can cause to your health.
But, coffee is a drink that people often take without giving it much thought. Probably it’s because of the instant charge up that they get from it. Still, you never thought of having an answer to the question – is coffee good for your liver or not?
So, as you’re here, I guess you do. Otherwise, why would have come here anyway? Let me take you to the answer as you’re looking for it.
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How Is Coffee Good For The Liver?
You’re probably thinking that why I’ve chosen to talk about the effect of coffee on the liver. Yes, there were so many other organs I could’ve picked. But the liver is something that’s often talked less about, despite being a vital organ.
Do you how many people in the world are currently suffering from liver diseases? More than 50 Million. On the other hand, coffee is a drink that is being consumed at a rate of billion cups per day. So, is there no possibility that these two phenomena can cross the path?
Thanks to the researches, it has been proved that the consumption of coffee has some positive impact on liver damage. Let me give you a bit more specific view on the topic.
Liver Cirrhosis Vs. Coffee
Through the researches, an amazing result has come up about the relation between coffee and liver cirrhosis. With nine published studies conducted over 430,000 people, it has been seen that a certain increase in coffee consumption has minimized the risk of having liver cirrhosis.
In those studies, participants added two cups of coffee to their daily coffee consumption level. Incredibly, it has minimized the chance of the disease by 44%. The fatality level of cirrhosis is nothing new, and sadly no cure has also been developed to deal with it.
But unbelievably, coffee has shown great improvement on that part, as it can reduce the possibility of developing the disease. The reason for considering it as the great news is, more than a million people die every year around the globe with this disease. Now, imagine how coffee can help with lowering that number.
Reduction Ratio of Liver Cirrhosis As Per the Consumption
Liver cirrhosis is not always triggered by one single reason. There’re many of them to be precise. One of the most common ones is hepatitis infections. As alcohol is another heavily consumed beverage, it can also cause the disease.
The others are immune disorders and fatty liver disease. These are mainly tied to health issues like obesity and diabetes. Obviously, those who don’t consume coffee have a higher chance of getting affected. But what about those who do?
As per the researchers’ estimation, one cup in a day can lower it to 22%. But if it’s two, then it’ll be 43%. The percentage fell to 57% when three cups were being consumed every day. When it came to four cups, the ratio declined to 65%.
Other Diseases Vs. Coffee
If you’re already suffering from liver issues, then never underestimate the power of your coffee cup to fight them. But fortunately, liver cirrhosis is not the only problem that coffee is helpful against. Drinking 1-3 cups in a day can help you out with some other severe health issues as well. They include –
- Fibrosis
- Hepatitis B and C
- Fatty liver disease (unrelated to alcohol)
Can Coffee Be Considered AsMedicine?
The effectiveness of coffee against liver disease is so high that doctors have started considering it as a weapon to fight those issues. There are certain reasons for that, though. You can divide the reasons into three. They are –
- Coffee is perfectly effective against diseases.
- It’s easy to get and available almost everywhere.
- From an expense perspective, they’re cheaper than all those costly medicines.
The only confusion they face is on determining any specific amount of consumption. It’s because, maybe coffee is great on liver issues, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be harmful to other aspects.
As an example, you can mention coffee’s impact on one’s cholesterol level and blood pressure. So, when it’s for the following people, consumption level should be determined with utmost cautiousness.
- Minors
- Older adults
- People who have high blood pressure
There’s no way to deny the effectiveness of coffee over patients with liver issues. But it doesn’t matter how good it is, you still need to ensure complete care over your liver.
This means you need to be cautious about eating the right foods, strictness on alcohol, keeping the weight right, ensuring vaccination of hepatitis A & B. Along with these, don’t ever share needles and continue to do exercise regularly.
How does Coffee Work Within the Body?
Do you know the number of chemicals that coffee contains? It’s more than 1000. Sounds incredible, doesn’t it? But not all of these chemicals are proved as helpful for the human body. Let me educate you on the chemicals a bit.
Paraxanthine
When caffeine goes into your body, after its digestion, the chemical named as paraxanthine gets generated. It basically slows down the scar tissue growth that is involved in fibrosis. These tissues help in developing alcohol-related cirrhosis, liver cancer, fatty liver disease (unrelated to alcohol), and hepatitis C.
Kahweol and Cafestol
Two of the most known chemicals in coffee are kahweol and cafestol. These two may help your body to fight cancer. Though doctors are not confirmed about the power level or the impact’s intensity, some of them think it in a different way.
They think if unsweetened coffee can be consumed in a tolerable amount, that can be helpful on treatments of hepatocellular carcinoma or liver cancer.
Acids in Coffee
Hepatitis B is caused by a certain virus. Doctors assume that the acids in coffee can possibly be able to work against that virus. Even in one of the studies, it’s found that decaf coffee might be able to render the same benefit.
The Unresolved Questions
It usually doesn’t happen in science that all the results come in favor of one single outcome. The same thing happened on the link between coffee and liver as well. I’m mentioning one of them here so that you can have an idea.
- In a study, it has been seen that consuming filtered coffee is more effective in reducing liver cirrhosis risk than boiled coffee.
Final Words
Now when someone asks you that – is coffee good for your liver or not, I hope you won’t have any problem answering. You can also be sure that your favorite drink is not going to put your liver in any harm, at least. But try to cut the sugar and milk off to get the best results.
Related Article:
- Is Coffee Bad for Your Skin?
- Is Coffee Good for Your Health?
- And Is Coffee Bad for Your Thyroid?
- Is Coffee Bad for Your Stomach?
REFERENCES
- https://www.worldgastroenterology.org/publications/e-wgn/e-wgn-expert-point-of-view-articles-collection/global-burden-of-liver-disease-a-true-burden-on-health-sciences-and-economies#:~:text=Hence%2C%20we%20estimate%20that%20more,the%20most%20common%20causative%20factors.
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/why-is-coffee-good-for-you#section5
- https://www.webmd.com/hepatitis/coffee-help-liver
- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coffee-liver-cirrhosis/drinking-more-coffee-may-undo-liver-damage-from-booze-idUSKCN0VR2JN
