Caffeine Prevents Liver Disease

DC Jeff writes "The Washington Post reports that drinking two cups of coffee or tea daily may reduce the risk of liver disease. From the article: 'The study of nearly 10,000 people showed that those who drank more than two cups of coffee or tea per day developed chronic liver disease at half the rate of those who drank less than one cup each day.'"

Comments

Caffeeine bonus

[chunews]

Plus, they were able to become the First Poster, at nearly twice the rate!

That's because.....

[N8F8]

The other folks are drinking booze instead.

O Rly?

[SilentOne]

How many people in the study were killed off by high blood pressure before they had the chance to develop cancer?

Re:O Rly?

[ATeamMrT]

How many people in the study were killed off by high blood pressure before they had the chance to develop cancer?

Good question!

It seems that any industry can produce a study which says their product is healthy/benificial in some way. But they never tell you the adverse health effects. I would not be supprised if the tobacco industry would run a news story saying smoking decreased colon cancer by .0001% in the population. Too bad it would kill 100X as many from lung cancer.

This reminds me of the 80's when everyone was saying how bad butter is, and to switch to margarine or die of a heart attack. 10 years later, researchers said margarine is unhealthy and butter is better. I remember the same debate about eggs, until some researcher enlightened us to good cholesterol. LOL, I guess it took someone to fly to France to watch 80 year old men eat eggs fried in butter before they asked "What's going on here".

I am going to take my grandmothers advice, she is still alive in her 90's. She told me when I was young to get 8 good hours of sleep each night. Don't stay up past midnight, wake up early and ready for the new day. And everything is good in moderation, never take too much of anything. The only thing she said to avoid was smoke and drugs, and people who smoke or use drugs. The last bit of advice was that tomorrow is always a new day, no setback should foul your mood. It is pretty simple advice, but I think she was 100% correct.

Re:O Rly?

[SatanicPuppy]

Your Grandma knew her classics: ...But though our present account is of this nature we must give what help we can. First, then, let us consider this, that it is the nature of such things to be destroyed by defect and excess, as we see in the case of strength and of health (for to gain light on things imperceptible we must use the evidence of sensible things); both excessive and defective exercise destroys the strength, and similarly drink or food which is above or below a certain amount destroys the health, while that which is proportionate both produces and increases and preserves it. So too is it, then, in the case of temperance and courage and the other virtues. For the man who flies from and fears everything and does not stand his ground against anything becomes a coward, and the man who fears nothing at all but goes to meet every danger becomes rash; and similarly the man who indulges in every pleasure and abstains from none becomes self-indulgent, while the man who shuns every pleasure, as boors do, becomes in a way insensible; temperance and courage, then, are destroyed by excess and defect, and preserved by the mean.

--Aristotle, the Nicomachean Ethics.

Great News!

[XLawyer]

So first we find out that masturbation lowers the risk of prostate cancer, and now we learn that caffeine prevents liver disease.

Dude, I'm going to live forever!

Re:Great News!

[akeyes]

And you thought your job was bad...

irish coffee

[i.r.id10t]

So I guess Irish Coffee sorta balances it out? The liquor trashes the liver, the caffiene saves it. And isometric intoxication too!

Now where's my Bushmills and Jamaica Blue coffee beans?

breakthrough in science...

[Havenwar]

Studies show that with absolute certainty, sleep is lethal. Everybody who has ever slept will at some point die. It is unavoidable. We better stay away from it.

In other news, stupidity (and the blind belief in statistical based research) causes cancer.

Re:Nope

[randomencounter]

Technically it is a symptom.

Depression is the illness usually leading to suicide.

Incidence

[henryhbk]

The key to these studies, which we teach all the residents and medical students, is that you have to look at the incidence of liver disease (especially when they specifically excluded viral hepatitis which is the overwhelming majority) in the population. If the incidence is one in 100,000 and you get a 50% reduction (sounds impressive) you only change it to 1 in 200,000. This is why pharmaceutical firms use the relative risk (ignoring incidence, just using the percentage) in advertising.

The incidence of liver disease among non-hepatitis infected people is incredibly small. If you take all comers it is 12th among cause of death (lower than suicde) according to the NIH (pdf of causes of death).

Because even if the result is statistically significant, if not that many people die of it (~2500 in 2003), then the harm caused by this drug (caffine) may not outway the rare case it saves (and yes, I understand if you're the one it is significant, but this is public health)

For instance "Zipia reduces aliens ripping out of your abdomen by 99%" sounds very impressive, until you look at how many people this would affect (there were the 4 alien movies plus spaceballs). So everyone should not start using zipia, which undoubtably will cause some bad side effect, versus those few actors who would be saved.

Again, irresponsible medical reports

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

I grow tired of these kinds of "studies", those that say drinking beer, wine, tea, coffee, coke, or even smoking have some benefits. Especially when they start saying that 1 or 2 cups or servings of someting will prevent something else.

These studies are generally aimed at foods or products that are generally considered to be unhealthy or otherwise, the people making these products are in a defensive position to try and validate their existence.

The problem is that there are those people just waiting for an excuse to over-indulge in these products. If drinking 2 cups of beer a day prevents cancer, then by drinking 12 I will live to 100, right?

Often people just read the caption without reading the entire article, or in many cases, the finer points of the study are excluded to a terse clipping of the conclusion without preventing the facts, those facts usually explaining how overindulgence could cause adverse medical problems. This is the case here in Slashdot where many people simply read the blurb without delving into the hyperlinked article.

Also, these studies are usually contradictory to other studies. Recently it was reported on Slashdot that drinking even one cup of coffee was linked to some kind of adverse health issue. The studies conflict each other, meaning that the truth of the matter is never effectively conveyed by both parties. People that love coffee will be quicker to believe that it is more beneficial to them then those that don't drink it, who would quote coffee is harmful to you.

Lastely, these studdies generally ignore other serious health issues that might go along with the consumption. Like the fact that most people take cream and sugar in their coffee. Many people in Canada love their double/doubles (2 creams and 2 sugars). This study suggests that drinking two cups of coffee a day has positive health effects, but for those that like cream and sugar in their coffee, this means drinking in addition to the coffee, one will consume 4 servings of high fat cream and 4 teaspoons of suger. The high fat in cream and excessive calories of the sugar are sure to be more harmful to your health then whatever positive effects the coffee may have on your health. Those that feel more is better will consume more high fat cream and high calorie sugars which will exponentially have a negative effect on their health, in addition to ignoring disclaimers by the study that too much coffee could have a detrimental effect.

Finally, there are those people who consider themselves well learned and so propose that its the caffine in coffee that is beneficial, so drinking a couple cups of cola should also be beneficial, or popping a couple of caffine pills or those high-caf beverages. The study mentions that drinking 2 cups of coffee or tea a day is beneficial, but the Slashdot article only says that Caffeine prevents liver disease, a discrepancy in the facts presented.

In any case, one should never blindly use these articles as an excuse to continue or start a bad habit. There are MANY healthy ways to prevent Liver Disease, drinking two cups of coffee a days to cure a hangover after consuming an excess of alcohol the previous night probably won't have a positive effect on your liver.