Does coffee help your liver?

On the whole, it seems that drinking the stuff we enjoy isn’t always terribly good for our liver.

Alcohol, for instance, really doesn’t do our poor old liver much good at all.

However, there has been a study in the news recently, which suggests that coffee might be of benefit to this particular organ in the body.

The study was a meta research project, which analysed the information which had been gained from other studies   nine case-control projects and seven cohort studies.

The aim?

To look at the effect of drinking coffee on the risk of developing cancer of the liver.

So why is there a suggestion that coffee is, in this regard, a good thing?

The information suggested that coffee-drinkers could be as much as 50% less likely to contract liver cancer, compared to those who never drink the stuff.

Apparently men were more likely to exhibit pronounced effects in this regard, compared to women.

Before you go out and start glugging lots of coffee in the hope of having an indestructible liver, it’s probably worth mentioning a few words of caution.

The study had many limitations and more research is needed.

For instance, attention needs to be given to issues such as how much coffee was drunk to have this effect (and whether differing amounts have different effects), concerns about whether the studies made correct classifications and so on.

However, this is an important issue, both given the extent to which coffee is enjoyed globally daily and the problems of liver cancer.