Those who drink coffee may be at a lesser risk for primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a condition in which bile ducts can become blocked, according to researchers from the Mayo Clinic.
For the study researchers examined 619 patients with PSC and another 724 with an associated liver disease called primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). These subjects were compared to 652 control subjects with no previous conditions.
They found that coffee consumption cut the risk of developing PSC by nearly 50 percent compared to those who had never drank coffee:
"Coffee has been shown to be associated with total and cause-specific mortality, with decreases of 10% and 13% for men and women, respectively, among those who drank two to three cups per day. It has also been shown to improve outcomes for liver disorders including hepatocellular carcinoma," said lead researcher Craig Lammert at Digestive Disease Week.
"This supports coffee as one potentially modifiable, dose-dependent risk factor that could reduce the risk of PSC but not PBC. The diseases are similar but have many genetic, clinical, and biological differences," Lammert added.
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