Few people are more driven and head-strong than scientists. Most members of the scientific world have to be overly confident in order to keep going in the industry. And since there are so many scientists, they can’t all be working on different subjects. Very large numbers of researchers actually share the same field, so it’s not at all surprising when they come up with contrasting findings. After a study from a couple of months back bashed the effects of coffee on your organism, a new study shows that liver damage can be reduced by drinking coffee.
The study
Led by Dr. Oliver Kennedy from the Southampton University, the team of researchers behind the study performed a meta-analysis by going over nine previous studies related to coffee consumption. The total amount of subjects from the studies was 430,000 participants, out of which a surprisingly low 1,900 had developed cirrhosis; but for the meta-analysis the sample was quite large enough.
The study being a meta-analysis, however, the researchers didn’t interact with any of the actual subjects, and nor were they able to find out any more information or details than what was presented in the original nine studies. The results are basically a conclusion to which they arrived after analyzing the previous researches.
As its main focus, the study looked to determine the effects two extra servings of coffee had on decreasing the risks for developing cirrhosis. In eight out of the nine studies investigated, an increased intake of coffee was directly tied to a decreased risk of cirrhosis. The last one showed no connection between the two.
Coffee and cirrhosis
However, with eight out of the nine studies confirming the researchers’ premise, the team started working on numbers. By extrapolating the number of cups of coffee consumed every day by the 1,900 participants, as well as their tendency towards developing cirrhosis, the scientists came up with some pretty interesting numbers.
Compared to people that drink no coffee at all, four cups of coffee a day granted a 65% lower chance of developing the disease, while three cups lowered it by 57%. Meanwhile two cups translated to 43%, and one cup to a 22% lower cirrhosis risk.
Of course, the type of coffee greatly affected the outcomes, with filtered coffee being more effective than boiled coffee, and other factors such as the brewing technique and the type of beans, also seeming to affect the general outcome.
Overall, the study says that drinking coffee is good for your liver, but only if you’re careful about what types of coffee you consume, with the overly sweetened Starbucks cups not being all that efficient, but on the contrary – a cup of Starbucks sweetened coffee can have more sugar than your average soda.
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