Athletes Foot and Athletes foot treatment
HomeFoot Conditions and Foot CareFoot Care ShoppingFoot Care Discussion  

 

Achilles Pain
Athletes Foot
Ankle Sprains
Arch Pain
Bunion Pain
Burning Feet
Corns
Cracked Heels
Dry Skin
Fungus Nails
Flat Feet Care
Foot Blisters
Heel Pain
High Arch
Hammer Toes
Hard Skin
Ingrowing Nails
Metatarsalgia Care
Neuroma Pain
Pronation
Smelly Feet
Shin Pain
Tendonitis
Verruca
 

 

 
Previous Health News
 
Womens Breast Feeding may protect against heart disesase
 
Ear infections 'linked to asthma'
 
More diseases tied to smoking
 
Diabetes, Alzheimer's link
 
Can Caffeine prevent liver damage?
 
All Sweeteners Are Not Equal
 
Vitamin E May Help Reduce Diabetes Risk
 
Parents refusing to give babies MMR
 
Stress and Asthma Don't Mix well in Kids
 
Happier is Healthier
 
Green Tea May Prevent Cancer
 
Cancer Vaccine
 
Wrist Pain
 
Global Obesity
 
Vitamins death link
 
Garlic lifesaver
 
 

 

 




 

You are here: Home > Today's Article

Can Caffeine Prevent Liver Damage?

If you are at risk for liver disease, drinking caffeinated coffee and soda may help protect you from getting it, a new study shows.

According to research presented at the Digestive Disease Week meeting in New Orleans, a researcher from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases found people at high risk for liver problems can reduce their risk by drinking coffee and other caffeinated beverages.

There have been other studies that have shown this effect from caffeine, said lead researcher Dr. James E. Everhart. However, why caffeine protects against liver disease is not known.

"Caffeine blocks one receptor found in the brain and liver. This may have immunological effects, but this is really speculative," he added.

In their study, Everhart and his colleague, Dr. Constance E. Ruhl from Social and Scientific Systems in Silver Spring, Md., collected data on 5,944 men and women who were at high risk for liver injury.

The subject's risk came from excessive drinking, hepatitis B or C, iron overload, obesity or impaired sugar metabolism.

All the subjects participated in the third U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

As part of the study, the subjects were asked to report how much coffee, tea and soft drinks they consumed.

Everhart and Ruhl found the more coffee and caffeine these people drank, the less likely they were to develop liver injury. This finding was the same for all age, gender and ethnic groups.

In addition, the protective effect was stronger for caffeine than for coffee.

Laboratory work is needed to figure out why caffeine has this effect, Everhart said. "More importantly, this finding should stimulate more clinical research in people with liver disease to see whether either drinking coffee or consuming caffeine has an effect," he added.

Dr. Jonathan A. Dranoff, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Yale University, said the finding is "provocative and worthy of further investigation."

Dranoff noted that findings in population-based studies do not necessarily confirm that caffeine causes any change in liver health. At this point, he said, "it is impossible to say that increasing coffee consumption would cause one to have less advanced liver injury."

The next step, Dranoff said, is to do a study of patients and randomize them into caffeine or no-caffeine groups. "This is the best way to test if this hypothesis is true," he added.

"These findings are so shocking that they deserve much more intense investigation before you can draw any conclusion," Dranoff said.

 

 

Copyright © 2008 Dr Foot

 

Foot Pain  and Foot Care  Products

Everything for foot and leg pain

View Products

 


Ask Dr Foot a Question about foot pain?

 

 

 

Join us for a live chat with a Dr Foot advisory board member every Thursday 10a.m to 11a.m GMT

Chat

 

 

Email addresses are not released to third parties.
Instructions for removal come with every email.