Study Says Coffee Protects Against Cirrhosis

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%."

Thanks study

[CrazyJim1]

This is not a recommendation to drink coffee, nor is it a recommendation that the way to deal with heavy alcohol consumption is to drink more coffee,"
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?

The Joys of Coffee

[TylerTheGreat]

NPR also ran this story [npr.org] earlier today saying that people who drink 2 cups of coffee are better listeners than those who don't. We've been drinking this stuff for how long and we're just now figuring this stuff out? What will they find out next?

Re:Study with 21 year old data?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think humans have evolved enough over the last 21 years to have changed the influence of alcohol and caffeine :-)
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?

[Pedrito]

Also, what about other caffeine sources like soda?

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?

[cloudness is x]

This New Scientist article comes short to provide any data about the absolute risk rates. Sure it's easy to make headlines with those impressive relative risk rate reductions: 80% reduction for heavy (4 cups and more/day) coffee drinkers!

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%

Whether a patient drinks coffee or not will only cause a 0.07% variability of the alcoholic cirrhosis risk. In short, another fine example of medical sensationalism.

What the coffee is really doing

[laxisusous]

Everyone is talking about the connection between coffee and Cirrhosis without examining how alcohol causes Cirrhosis. The trick that coffee is doing is marginally reversing the harmfull effects that cause Cirrhosis. Basically the alcohol depleats the nutrients that the liver needs, causing Cirrhosis. The coffee has some of the nutrients that alcohol removes. The better idea is to replenish ALL of the nutrients so as to feel no ill-effects from alchohol (as far as health is concerned).

There is a great book writen by a professional nutritionist that discusses how this works in detail. The title is pretty cheesy but the work is solid. It is called, "Drink as Much as You Want and Live Longer" by Frederick M. Beyerlein.

Also a good web reference to debunk alot of alcohol related health myths (with the profesonal research to back it up) is at:
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/index.html [potsdam.edu]

Amazon link to "Drink as Much as You Want and Live Longer":
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155950188X/002-71 01737-9453630?v=glance&n=283155 [amazon.com]

laxisusous

Re:So glad to hear

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Swedish coffee too. When I lived in Sweden, this is how we did it:

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.

Re:Of course

[Not The Real Me]

The problem with most coffee is the acid that cames out when brewing with hot/boiling water. Cold brewed coffee keeps the acid locked up in the coffee grinds and is very gentle on the stomach.

http://www.toddycafe.com/about/news_cooking_light. php [toddycafe.com]

Re:Fox coverage

[PlusFiveTroll]

No! No! We must drink both coffee and tea.

Why you say?

So we can drink and smoke [sciencedaily.com]

Live long and party!