Coffee -- Healthy Tonic for the Liver?

Coffee -- Healthy Tonic for the Liver?

People who drink more than a cup of coffee a day are less likely to develop liver cancer than those who do not, Japanese researchers say.

A team at Tohoku University, a state-run university in Sendai, in north-east Japan, compiled the data based on a study of about 61,000 adults.  Professor Ichiro Tsuji, who led the study, said the team has yet to pinpoint the substance in coffee which appeared to curb liver cancer.  But he said coffee helped lower the risk of cirrhosis, and that chlorogenic acid, present in coffee beans, had proven in an animal study to reduce the risk of liver cancer.

The team studied 61,000 people aged 40 years or over for seven to nine years between 1984 and 1997.  It found 117 people developed liver cancer during the survey period.  The team analyzed data based on the subjects' age, sex, and other factors, and concluded that the chances of developing liver cancer were 0.58 for those who drink more than a cup of coffee per day and 0.71 for those who drink less than a cup of coffee a day, compared with the base figure of one for non-coffee drinkers.

The tendency to develop liver cancer was particularly prevalent among those who had had some type of liver ailment other than cancer in the past, who were 60 or older, and who had smoked in the past.  "The tendency not to develop liver cancer among coffee drinkers was consistent even if we analyzed their age, sex, and drinking habits," Tsuji said.

Tsuji presented the findings to a meeting of the Japan Epidemiological Association in Otsu January 22.