Coffee cure-all for liver woes

A DAILY caffeine hit may be the answer to one of the most common medical conditions in the world.

Austin Health researchers are testing whether regular coffee consumption can treat fatty liver disease, one of the most frequent, but lesser-known, obesity-related problems.

At least one in three people in the Western world have an increased build-up of fat in their liver — largely from inactivity, being overweight or having a poor diet — but most will not know their liver is inflamed.

A proof-of-concept study is aiming to test whether three cups of coffee a day can reduce liver fat, and consequently get them out of the health danger zone.

Austin Health liver transplant physician Associate Professor Paul Gow, said the first evidence that coffee could improve liver function emerged 30 years ago when a study into heart disease revealed that regular coffee drinks had healthier livers.

“There have been observational studies showing that coffee drinkers have a lower risk of cirrhosis, of liver cancer, and they have a lower risk of fatty liver disease,” Associate Prof Gow said. “There haven’t been interventional studies for fatty liver disease. We want to prove that cause and effect.”

Associate Prof Gow said there were no medications or surgical treatments available for the condition, which can lead to liver cirrhosis and cancer. It is also strongly predictive of future risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

“It’s a disease that a third of the world has got. Even if there is therapy in the future, it will be impractical to deliver that to so many people around the world,” he said. “Ideally, it will be a dietary intervention that is cheap, simple and palatable.”

The 12 participants will have their liver scanned before and after the month-long trial.

All will be given standard advice of eating a better diet, but half — all currently noncoffee drinkers — will be told to have three coffees each day.

“There are a thousand chemicals in coffee,” he said. “It’s almost certainly all those little bits of pieces all together that contribute to the benefit, rather than one magic ingredient.”

If the hypothesis that coffee can reduce liver fat by 10 per cent is proven, Associate Prof Gow said the findings would be need to be confirmed in larger trial before doctors could prescribe coffee.