SUPERMARKETGURU FOOD &
HEALTH WEEKLY NEWSFLASH!
Large Review of 20 Years of Studies Concludes: Two Cups of Coffee Daily Cuts Risk of Liver Cancer
Published on: July 1, 2007
During the last 20 years, numerous studies have been conducted in Japan, Europe, and the U.S. analyzing the relationship between coffee drinking and how it impacts the liver from injury, cirrhosis or liver cancer and other diseases.
In the May issue of Gastroenterology, two Swedish research physicians published their meta-analysis of 11 of the most prominent studies to quantitatively assess the relationship between the consumption of coffee and the risk of liver cancer. The investigators observed a 43% reduction in the risk of liver cancer among those participants who consumed two cups of coffee per day.
Following their review of published epidemiological studies,the two doctors concluded that in all of the studies a reduced risk of liver disease such as cirrhosis and cancer was revealed. In six of the studies, the association between coffee consumption and liver cancer risk was "statistically significant" in the ability to reduce the risk. The two decades of studies involved 2,260 liver cancer patients and 239,146 people without liver cancer.
"A protective effect of coffee consumption on liver cancer is biologically plausible," the doctors wrote, however it is not the caffeine in the coffee that is the key. "Coffee contains large amounts of antioxidants, such as chlorogenic acids," which combat oxidative stress and inhibit the formation of carcinogens. Furthermore, experimental animal studies have specifically shown that coffee and chlorogenic acids have an inhibitory effect on liver cancer.
The researchers conducted their research by studying MEDLINE studies from 1966 to February of 2007, including both cohort and case-control studies that reflected the relative risk.
SOURCE: May issue of Gastroenterology in an article written by Dr. Susanna C. Larrsson and Dr. Alicja Wolk, of the Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, The National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
