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Caffeine and the Liver
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Recent experiments concerning caffeine consumption and liver function have found the stimulant to be quite effective at ridding the organ of excessive amounts of built up toxins.
The positive effects seem to be most beneficial for those people that are at a high risk for liver injury related to excessive alcohol consumption, iron overload, hepatitis B or C, impaired sugar metabolism or obesity.
The actual cause of the mechanism that stimulates the healthier liver functioning is not known however there is some speculation that it is because caffeine blocks a receptor that exists in both the brain and the liver.
What is known is that the beneficial effects of caffeine on the liver transcends race, gender and age and that the beneficial effects are more directly derived from caffeine consumption rather than a particular type of caffeinated beverage.
Scientists are hesitating to draw any distinct conclusions from the tests that they have conducted but all professionals are under a general consensus that the issue deserves to be studied in quite a bit more detail.
These findings tend to fly directly in the face of previously held beliefs that caffeine is indeed a toxin that adds to the over all pollution of the liver as opposed to helping to eliminate or reduce toxins.
The trouble with caffeine is that it can be a negative substance to have in the bodies' system as it can contribute to many ailments such as hypertension, anxiety, insomnia, and irritability just to name a few.
The jury is still out with the conclusive verdict on the pros and cons of caffeine but in the meantime coffee drinkers can enjoy their beverages with an added feeling of personal well being.
The Press Release:
Caffeine linked to reduced risk of liver damage
By Karla Gale
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters Health) - Coffee and other caffeinated beverages may provide some protection from liver damage in people at increased risk for liver disease, according to research findings presented here at Digestive Disease Week.
Using data from the third US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted between 1988 and 1994, Drs. James E. Everhart and Constance E. Ruhl extracted information regarding caffeinated beverage consumption, as well as risk factors for and evidence of liver disease, indicated by serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) > 43 U/L.
They identified nearly 6000 adults out of 16,000 total with such risk factors as viral hepatitis, obesity, diabetes, iron overload or heavy alcohol use, Dr. Everhart said during a press conference. Altogether, 8.7% of those at risk had elevated ALT levels.
Compared with subjects who did not drink coffee, the risk for high ALT levels was nearly halved among those who drank more than two cups per day (odds ratio 0.56, after adjusting for age, gender, race and smoking history).
For overall caffeine consumption, those in the highest quintile (> 373 mg/day), the adjusted odds ratio was 0.31 (p < 0.001) compared with those who abstained from drinks containing caffeine.
"In the lowest quintile, about 12% had high ALT levels, compared with about 45 among those in the fifth quintile," said Dr. Everhart, who is chief medical officer of the Epidemiology and Clinical Trials Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
He noted that these findings are not sufficient for making recommendations regarding caffeine intake, especially since caffeine may have other deleterious effects, but "they should stimulate clinical trials."
As to a possible mechanism, he told Reuters Health, previous research has shown that one of caffeine's primary metabolic effects is blockade of adenosine receptors. The acute effect of this blockade is stimulation of the immune system that could protect the liver, "but we don't know what the chronic effects are," in terms of how caffeine affects liver function, he added.
Digestive Disease Week is jointly sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract.
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