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Drinking More Coffee May Undo Liver Damage From Booze (usatoday.com)

schwit1 writes: Drinking more coffee might help reduce the kind of liver damage that's associated with overindulging in food and alcohol, a review of existing studies suggests. Researchers analyzed data from nine previously published studies with a total of more than 430,000 participants and found that drinking two additional cups of coffee a day was linked to a 44% lower risk of developing liver cirrhosis.

16 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. More 4 Loco? by misosoup7 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Jokes aside, this will probably lead more people to drink coffee and alcohol at the same time since they think they'll stay awake longer and be able to drink more. This is a bad idea actually since having a stimulant and a depressant can lead to heart attacks (in severe cases) or capillary damage (in less severe cases).

    1. Re:More 4 Loco? by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Funny

      You better not be bad mouthing Irish coffee. The best drink ever invented.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re:More 4 Loco? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sober and wide awake is pretty scary. Especially these days.

    3. Re:More 4 Loco? by grub · · Score: 5, Insightful


      Drunk and wide awake. Can't think of a scarier way to go throughout life.

      Lemmy did it with booze and speed. He certainly seemed to have enjoyed it.

      --
      Trolling is a art,
    4. Re:More 4 Loco? by arth1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Lemmy only lived to 70. How long would he have lived without the booze and speed?

      How much would he have lived without booze and speed?

      (You call that living?!?)

      Yes, and so did he.

      Don't knock what you haven't tried. I'm sober out of necessity, but if I could, I'd be drunk and drugged every day for the rest of my life, noodling guitars and groupies. Even if my life got cut in half, it would be far more than twice as enjoyable. Even without the guitars and groupies.

    5. Re:More 4 Loco? by Sir+Holo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Lemmy only lived to 70. How long would he have lived without the booze and speed? (You call that living?!?)

      Lemmy's last words were, "Fuck it. I've had a good run."

  2. So... by msauve · · Score: 5, Funny

    Irish Coffee, anyone?

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  3. Some people just live on no matter what. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why is it the bitter ones that always live forever?

    I've met some cranky old farts I'd swear were fuled by booze, kept their heart beating with black coffee, glued together by cigarette tar, and given the will to live by the sheer resentment they have for their fellow man.

  4. Re:Not the best plan. by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

    I quit drinking coffee cold turkey a year ago because 5 cups in the morning wasn't helping me stay awake. I tried a cup 10 days later, and it reminded me of my first taste of coffee - bloody gross. Not even tempted. I just don't miss it, not even when sitting at the keyboard. But to answer your question, I had been drinking coffee for more than 30 years.

    As for booze, what booze? Same with soft drinks - what soft drinks? It's amazing how bad a diet soft drink tastes if you haven't had one for a while. And how overly sweet to the point of disgusting a non-diet one tastes.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  5. Re:Not the best plan. by hey! · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, while I agree with you in principle, coffee is an outlier. After decades of trying to find the cloud to go with the silver lining researchers have been unable to find much evidence for serious harm from sustained heavy coffee usage. You won't get high blood pressure or ulcers; and far from causing cancer there is now solid evidence that coffee protects you from liver and pancreatic cancers.

    As for the caffeine, the only serious issue still on the table is possibly higher miscarriage rates. Aside from that the negative effects of caffeine are minor: sleeplessness if taken too late, jitteriness if taken in unaccustomed amounts, withdrawal if you decide to go cold turkey. So don't go cold turkey, drink away and enjoy the benefits.

    Now I've made lifestyle changes which have for the most part eliminated my craving for caffeine. Since there's diabetes in my family I've lost weight, increased exercise, and improved my diet. Consequently I don't need caffeine to power through my afternoon fog any more; I can take it or leave it. But the evidence for the health benefits of coffee are so overwhelming -- particularly for liver and pancreatic function -- that I've deliberately reintroduced heavy coffee drinking to my daily routine. I brew about 60-90 grams of grounds every day by various methods -- the equivalent of about 4-6 cups of drip coffee. If I have to skip I miss it, but because of the other changes I've made a day without coffee is not the brain-numbing torture it once would have been.

    If Dr. Oz claimed that something does all the good things coffee does with so few drawbacks, I'd chalk it up to him being a lying bastard. But coffee's the real deal.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  6. Re:Not the best plan. by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's wise to avoid going cold turkey on coffee. It's one way to get long term migraines that are tough to clear up.

    Doesn't happen if you wean off coffee slowly.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  7. Study funded by? by John+Allsup · · Score: 2

    I can just imagine reading a paper concluding the above, with a footnote reading 'this research was part sponsored by Kenco and Carlsberg'...

    --
    John_Chalisque
  8. Re:Not the best plan. by kuzb · · Score: 2

    The problem with your argument is right now I can have both, and I don't see any reason to sacrifice either. So, while you're depriving yourself, I'll be getting the best of all worlds!

    --
    BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
  9. Re:Not the best plan. by kuzb · · Score: 2

    It's not that one can't give up coffee, it's that there's literally no reason to. Personally I love my coffee, and I hate how everyone is constantly trying to strip the things I love out of my life. It's too short for that nonsense.

    Also, when I'm so old I can't get it up, or my looks go to shit - as will happen to us all at some point - I'll still have glorious coffee. I don't understand why we're all trying to live forever anyway. That's not happening. Plus, if it's taking any years off my life, it'll be the ones at the end - the ones where we have an impressive change of winding up as retirement home invalids. I'd honestly rather be dead than wind up like that anyway.

    --
    BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
  10. Re:Not the best plan. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The problem with your argument is right now I can have both

    Yes, but it's really hard to avoid spilling the coffee.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  11. Grad student by Anonymous+Cow+Ward · · Score: 2

    As a grad student, I guess my liver is safe!

    --
    Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.