More Coffee Drinking May Slow the Progression of Hepatitis C

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The observational study result showed that high coffee drinking, about 3 or more cups of coffee daily intake, were less to have liver disease (because of Hepatitis C virus) progression than people with less coffee consumption.

This was the report posted at The Liver Meeting 2008: 59th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

Researchers analyzed patient questionnaire data about food frequency, including coffee and tea consumption, from the 3.5-year HALT-C randomized trial of 1050 hepatitis C patients at Ishak stage 3 or higher who were unresponsive to standard drug therapies. Some patients in the HALT-C trial received no treatment, and others received 90 µg/week of pegylated interferon alfa-2a.

Of the 808 patients who responded to the questionnaire at baseline, 711 drank zero to 2 cups of coffee a day, and 97 drank 3 or more cups of coffee daily. Those who drank the most coffee also consumed the most alcohol and cigarettes. These coffee drinkers, however, had healthier livers than the other participants, with less steatosis (evaluated by biopsy) and lower bilirubin levels, ?-fetoprotein levels, and aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase ratios (P < .05).

“In population studies, coffee intake has been inversely associated with cirrhosis, chronic liver disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma. But, no studies have examined the relationship between coffee consumption and progression of advanced liver disease,” wrote Neal D. Freedman, MD, of the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, in Rockville, Maryland, and colleagues.

The questionnaire did not ask about the strength of the coffee, what people put in their coffee, or whether people drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. Even though 85% of coffee consumed nationally is caffeinated. Yet, Actual coffee consumption can be difficult to measure.

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Technorati Tags: coffee, coffee and health, coffee research, Hepatitis C, liver disease

November 8, 2008 | Filed Under coffee

Comments

One Response to “More Coffee Drinking May Slow the Progression of Hepatitis C”

Anna on November 8th, 2008 9:04 pm

Interesting study, I know that with H C you can drink coffe, but not alcohol. Alcohol kills liver especially when you have this disease. Coffee may helped in liver disease, but then coffee reduced bone density. There may be positives about coffee but there are also negatives too. Interesting post, and btw thank you for the add in the blog catalogue. Anna