Are you a coffee drinker? Do you drink alcoholic beverages too? You might be interested in this study. Scientists say that drinking coffee is actually linked to a reduced chance of liver cancer.
Drinking coffee has provided a vast body of knowledge on its health benefits. Aside from providing a healthy heart and antioxidants to battle aging, it can actually reverse the damage done to the liver by drinking alcohol.
According to a research by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, there can be a 14% reduced risk of liver cancer for every cup of coffee consumed per day, Yahoo Health reports.
A research team from the Imperial College London, as part of their ongoing research for the Continuous Update Project, analyzed a total of 34 studies about how diet, nutrition, physical activity and weight related to cancer risk and survival.
The study comprises 8.2 million people wherein 24,500 of them had liver cancer. Many studies show that drinking too much alcohol can raise the risk of liver cancer and the researchers say that the cancer-fighting compounds or antioxidants present in coffee may reverse the damaging effects of alcohol to the liver.
"Both coffee and coffee extracts have also been shown to reduce the expression of genes involved in inflammation, and the effects appear to be most pronounced in the liver," the report states as reported by Huffington Post.
However, the study states that drinking three or more alcoholic drinks a day can raise the risk of liver cancer. Drinking coffee, on the other hand, may reduce the risk of liver cancer but it wasn't clear why.
Yet, it is always a good idea to limit alcohol intake in order to prevent liver damage that can predispose the body to liver cancer. According to statistics, liver cancer killed 746,000 people in 2012 worldwide, the second most of any other type of cancer.
