Drinking more cups of coffee could help to lower the type of liver damage that is linked to overeating and drinking too much alcohol. The analysis of several past studies showed that drinking two extra cups of coffee per day reduced the risk of liver cirrhosis by 44 percent.
Researchers reviewed data from nine published studies that included a total of over 430,000 participants, according to New York Daily News. Their findings were published in the journal Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
Lead study author Dr. Oliver Kennedy works at Southampton University in the United Kingdom. He shared that cirrhosis has no cure and can be deadly.
Kennedy noted in an email that it is useful that cirrhosis can be reduced by drinking coffee. That is because the beverage is cheap, common, and causes few health issues.
Each year cirrhosis kills over one million people worldwide. Some causes include high alcohol drinking and fatty liver disease, which is linked to diabetes and obesity.
Kennedy and his research team studied the average coffee consumption across past studies. They wanted to learn how drinking two extra cups of coffee every day would affect the risks of liver disease including nearly 2,000 patients with cirrhosis.
The researchers learned that increasing the consumption of alcohol by two cups per day was linked to a big reduction in the risk of cirrhosis. It was true in eight of nine studies.
In addition, drinking more daily cups of coffee showed that the risk of cirrhosis usually kept dropping. That was true in all but one study.
Researchers have estimated that drinking one daily cup of Joe was linked to 22 percent lower risk of cirrhosis. Drinking two cups caused the risk to decrease 43 percent, and four cups caused a nearly two-thirds plummet.
Researchers reported it is unclear how coffee could result in a healthier liver. It is also unknown if certain coffee beans or brewing methods have an effect.
Last year Harvard University's Frank Hu finished a 20-year study about how coffee affects the human body. His study showed that coffee drinkers have lower risks of heart disease, dementia, and suicide, according to Business Insider.
This video takes up if coffee is healthy: