A new study found that drinking up to three or four cups of regular or decaffeinated coffee daily reduces the risk of chronic liver disease and mortality from it, according to CNN. Coffee drinkers were 21% less likely to develop chronic liver disease and 49% less likely to die from chronic liver disease compared to non-coffee drinkers, according to the study.
Dr. Oliver Kennedy, a member of the University of Southampton's medical school in the UK and the study's author, stated, "Coffee is widely available, and the benefits we see from our study may mean it could offer a potential preventative treatment for chronic liver disease." Kennedy noted, "This would be particularly beneficial in low-income countries with poorer access to healthcare and where the burden of chronic liver disease is higher."
### Increasing Rates of Liver Cancer
Risk factors for liver disease include alcohol consumption, obesity, diabetes, smoking, and hepatitis B and C infections, as well as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is the accumulation of excess fat in liver cells not related to alcohol. The diagnosis rate of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, affecting individuals who are obese, overweight, or have diabetes, high cholesterol, or high triglycerides, has more than doubled in the past 20 years, according to the American Liver Foundation, impacting up to 25% of Americans.
The rate of liver cancer diagnosis has increased more than threefold between 1980 and today, "while mortality rates have doubled," according to the American Cancer Society. Contributing factors to liver cancer include diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, excessive alcohol consumption, and hepatitis B and C infections. The global incidence of liver cancer diagnoses has risen for decades—a 2018 study found a 75% increase in cases worldwide between 1990 and 2015.
Liver cancer is the sixth most common type of cancer globally, according to the World Cancer Research Fund, with approximately 83% of cases occurring in less developed countries, particularly in Asia and Africa. Survival rates are noted to be poor due to a lack of early symptoms, resulting in many liver cancer cases being very advanced at the time of diagnosis.
