If you’re looking for a reason to have
that extra cup of coffee in the morning, there is good news. Drinking two more
cups of coffee each day has been linked to a dramatically lowered odds of the
liver damage caused by excessive alcohol, a recent study found.
The analysis of nine studies totaling
more than 430,000 participants found that drinking those two extra mugs of mud
each day is linked to a 44 percent reduced risk of liver cirrhosis, a disease
often caused by excessive alcohol consumption. Cirrhosis of the liver also can
be caused by drugs and certain viral infections, such as hepatitis B and C. A
growing cause of cirrhosis of the liver is fatty liver disease.
Cirrhosis is a slowly developing
disease in which healthy liver tissue is replaced with scar tissue. The scar
tissue blocks the flow of blood through the liver and slows the liver’s ability
to process nutrients, hormones, drugs and natural toxins. It also reduces the
production of proteins and other substances made by the liver. Cirrhosis eventually
keeps the liver from working properly.
Cirrhosis of the liver is a serious
condition that causes more than 1 million deaths per year.
Coffee
alone, however, cannot reverse the lifestyle choices that result in cirrhosis
