Thursday, June 15, 2006

Drinking coffee cuts alcohol's harmful effects

One cup of coffee a day cuts the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis by 20 percent, and four cups per day reduced the risk by 80 percent, a large-scale study just completed suggests.

The study of more than 125,000 does not offer any reasons why this is true. It is unclear if the benefits are from caffeine or from some other ingredients in the coffee.

Cirrhosis is an irreversible scarring of the liver that stops or slows the organ’s ability to filter toxins from the blood. Heavy use of alcohol, hepatitis C and some inherited diseases can also cause cirrhosis.

Thee study found coffee did not protect the liver against those other causes of scarring. And it found that drinking tea did not reduce the risk of cirrhosis, discounting the possibility that caffeine is the active chemical giving the benefit.

Pour yourself another cup of coffee and read the entire article.

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