Coffee

Victims of hepatitis C may be able to help stave off progressive liver disease with regular cups of coffee, a study in the US reported in the journal Hepatology has discovered.

Researchers from the US National Cancer Institute led by Dr. Neal D. Freedman concluded that among the 776 test subjects, all of whom were hepatitis C sufferers with related liver damage, those that drank three or more cups of coffee daily were 53% less likely to see their liver disease worsening over four years than those that did not drink coffee.

The researchers found the higher a patient’s coffee intake, the less risk of progression was noted. Those who regularly drank one to three cups of coffee daily were 30% percent less likely to progress than those that drank no coffee at the start of the research. Three or more cups increased the percentage of decreased progression to 53%.

Interestingly, tea intake did not seem to affect liver disease progression.

It is too early to start advising chronic hepatitis C infection patients to start drinking more coffee on the basis of these findings, according to the researchers.

But the results are consistent with other trials that have demonstrated liver-protective properties associated with coffee.