Yet another coffee benefit
Posted by Richard on December 12, 2005
I’ve blogged before about the health benefits of drinking coffee. Back in August, I noted:
To stay healthy, eat your veggies and drink your coffee. Coffee? Yep, coffee. It’s chock full of polyphenols, powerful antioxidants that protect you from a host of diseases. …
…
There has been a lot of good health news about coffee in the past few years. Recent studies suggest that moderate to heavy coffee drinkers have half the risk of type 2 diabetes and liver cancer, one-third the risk of Parkinson’s disease, and significantly fewer cases of Alzheimer’s disease.
But I almost missed a story from last week reporting that coffee drinkers are much less likely to suffer liver damage from alcohol consumption, too much iron in the blood, or being overweight:
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.
The study, conducted by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and Social & Scientific Systems, Inc., found that coffee provided no protection to people at risk of liver disease from other causes, such as viral infections.
Researchers followed the 9,849 study participants for about 19 years and attributed the benefit to caffeine.
Let’s see now: we know there are health benefits from drinking whiskey, and coffee protects your liver from alcohol. [slaps forehead] Of course! Irish coffee!
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