I like to drink coffee. You do too, don’t you? Coffee contains a substance named caffeine. There are a lot of studies showing that coffee has some benefits for health. One of the caffein benefit is to protect your liver against cirrhosis. During I practice as an internist, I found and treated many patients with hepatic cirrhosis.
Most of hepatic cirrhosis patients experience hepatitis. The chronic hepatitis finally may cause cirrhosis. It means there are scars on the liver. And it will cause altered function of the liver. If the cirrhosis is getting worse, patients may have haematemesis and melena. Both these are medical terms that I have already known since 20 years ago. And I believe every medical persons are familiar with these terms.
Haematemesis is blood cough with dark color and melena is bloody and sticky feces. The color of feces may be black like coffee or asphalt. Both these signs are due to upper gastrointestinal bleeding. To treat cirrhosis patients is not easy. Many complication may be happening with the patients. I found that most of them will develop distended stomach due to ascites (fluid in the abdomen) and limbs swelling, as well as hypoalbuminemia.
Frankly, I am surprise that coffee may protect the liver against cirrhosis. According to a meta-analysis that found coffee consumption may reduce the risk of cirrhosis. Two cups or more coffee a day may be good for the liver. The studies conclude that the caffein lower the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis.
I believe coffee or caffein will not cure cirrhosis. It may be protective for liver. However, I am not sure coffee will protect against cirrhosis in patients with hepatitis. Hepatitis is caused by virus, that only need anti-viral to inhibit the virus, than we expect that the liver will not develop to be cirrhosis, or at least it may postpone the development of cirrhosis.
So, coffee is good for liver, but don’t expect too much on coffee consumption to protect your liver if you have hepatitis. Modern medicines and treatments are needed to cure cirrhosis and its complications.
Reference : Meta-analysis study
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Is it possible that the caffeine alters the metabolic processes of alcohol in the liver making it's bio-degradative products less toxic ?
Yeah, coffee has hepatoprotective effect. And I would prevent alcohol to disturb the liver.