A group of researchers in Australia examined data from previous studies involving coffee and liver disease and discovered that drinking more than two cups of coffee daily may help protect against deaths related to liver disease.
Increasing per capita coffee consumption to > 2 cups per day on a population level has the potential to avert hundreds of thousands of liver‐related deaths annually if the impact of coffee on liver‐related mortality is confirmed in clinical trials.
Sarah Gardner of the liver transplant unit at The Austin Hospital in Australia
Gardner and her team referred to previous study findings that said, “Compared to non-coffee drinkers, people who consume 2‐3 cups daily had a 38% reduction in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk and a 46% reduction in risk of death from chronic liver disease (CLD)
If consumers drank four or more cups daily, the risk reduction for HCC was 41% and for death from CLD was 71%. Other studies have reported risk reductions of similar importance.
The Australian researchers decided to estimate the potential impact that increased coffee consumption would have on global liver-related mortality.
They looked at the impact of drinking more than two cups and more than four cups/day per capita would have on liver-related deaths.
The researchers used the Global Burden of Disease 2016 data for 194 countries to model the impact using risk ratios from a published study.
The researchers found that if all countries had increased coffee intake per capita, from less than two to more than two cups of coffee daily, the predicted number of liver-related deaths would have been 630,947 in 2016, with 452,861 deaths prevented.
Based on the data, the researchers said coffee is accessible and relatively safe health intervention that may reduce liver‐related mortality globally.
According to the Australian research team, further research is needed to confirm the benefits of coffee on liver‐related mortality.
