Coffee found to curb effects of liver disease

“We really have almost nothing else that helps.

DR. JORDAN FELD TORONTO GASTROENTEROLOGIST

Liver disease looms as a threat for an unprecedented number of Canadians, affecting an estimated three million people, many unaware they are sick.

But there is some surprising good news for those nursing damaged livers: a new review of 20 years of research, co-authored by Canadian and U.S. researchers, concludes that drinking coffee can significantly curb the seriousness of liver cirrhosis — and even lower the risk of contracting a deadly cancer.

The debate over whether coffee represents an overall health benefit or risk for the general population will undoubtedly continue. But a Toronto specialist who helped conduct the review says he now recommends liver-disease sufferers drink two or three cups a day, or more if they can tolerate it.

For those patients, the evidence is convincing that the widely consumed beverage can be a useful therapy and perhaps even save lives, says Dr. Jordan Feld, a gastroenterologist at Toronto Western Hospital.

“We really have almost nothing else that helps,” he says.

“Besides taking away the primary cause of their liver disease — whether it’s stopping alcohol or, if it’s a viral infection, trying to treat or cure the infection — we don’t really have a lot of other things we can do to reduce the risk.”

While people with kidney failure can go on dialysis, those with end-stage liver disease have little alternative but to wait for a transplant. About 5,000 die every year in this country.

The Canadian Liver Foundation has called the growing prevalence of the condition a crisis, complaining it gets too little attention because of the association with drinking, though hundreds of thousands have liver disease triggered by viruses. About 20 per cent of the Canadians with chronic hepatitis C don’t even know they have it.

Feld and his colleagues theorize caffeine is the key ingredient, possibly because of its effects on adenosine receptors, which are involved in liver scarring.

Dr. Eric Yoshida, head of gastroenterology at Vancouver General Hospital, is not quite as definitive in recommending coffee for liver patients, but agrees the evidence is fairly clear that it can help.

“I think it’s pretty hard to say, ‘Everybody should drink coffee,’” he says. “(But) coffee drinking, at least for your liver, is maybe a beneficial thing and at least it’s not detrimental.”