Aa
Coffee has practically become a health food.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Coffee, tea, or decaf-no matter what your choice, drinking any of these beverages may reduce your risk of diabetes, according to a new analysis of 18 studies including hundreds of thousands of people.
Health
A 2005 research review concluded that people who drank the most coffee were one-third less likely to develop diabetes than those who drank the least, Dr. Rachel Huxley of The University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues note. In the years since then, they add, the amount of research on coffee and diabetes risk "has more than doubled," while other studies have suggested that tea and decaf coffee may also be preventive.
To update the evidence, Huxley and her team analyzed 18 studies on coffee, decaf, and tea and the risk of type 2 diabetes published between 1966 and 2009, including just shy of 458,000 people in all.
Type 2 diabetes, which is often tied to obesity, affects about 8 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
For every additional cup of coffee a person consumed each day, the study's authors found, a person's risk of diabetes was reduced by 7 percent. In the six studies that looked at decaf coffee, the researchers found, people who consumed more than three or four cups a day were at 36 percent lower risk of diabetes. And in seven studies that examined tea drinking and diabetes risk, people who drank more than three or four cups daily were at 18 percent lower diabetes risk.
The current analysis could have overestimated the effect of these beverages on diabetes risk due to statistical issues with the smaller studies, Huxley and her colleagues note. It's also not possible to say from the current evidence that heavy coffee drinkers (and tea and decaf drinkers) don't have other characteristics that might protect them against developing diabetes, they add, such as eating a healthier diet.
The fact that the effects were seen with decaf as well as coffee and tea suggest that if the effects are real, they aren't just due to caffeine, but may be related to other substances found in these beverages, the researchers say, for example magnesium, lignans (estrogen-like chemicals found in plants), or chlorogenic acids, which are antioxidants that slow the release of sugar into the blood after a meal.
Clinical trials are needed to investigate whether these beverages do indeed help prevent diabetes, the researchers say. If the benefits turn out to be real, they add, health care providers might begin advising patients at risk for diabetes not only to exercise and lose weight, but to drink more tea and coffee, too.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, December 14/28, 2009.
Health
A 2005 research review concluded that people who drank the most coffee were one-third less likely to develop diabetes than those who drank the least, Dr. Rachel Huxley of The University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues note. In the years since then, they add, the amount of research on coffee and diabetes risk "has more than doubled," while other studies have suggested that tea and decaf coffee may also be preventive.
To update the evidence, Huxley and her team analyzed 18 studies on coffee, decaf, and tea and the risk of type 2 diabetes published between 1966 and 2009, including just shy of 458,000 people in all.
Type 2 diabetes, which is often tied to obesity, affects about 8 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
For every additional cup of coffee a person consumed each day, the study's authors found, a person's risk of diabetes was reduced by 7 percent. In the six studies that looked at decaf coffee, the researchers found, people who consumed more than three or four cups a day were at 36 percent lower risk of diabetes. And in seven studies that examined tea drinking and diabetes risk, people who drank more than three or four cups daily were at 18 percent lower diabetes risk.
The current analysis could have overestimated the effect of these beverages on diabetes risk due to statistical issues with the smaller studies, Huxley and her colleagues note. It's also not possible to say from the current evidence that heavy coffee drinkers (and tea and decaf drinkers) don't have other characteristics that might protect them against developing diabetes, they add, such as eating a healthier diet.
The fact that the effects were seen with decaf as well as coffee and tea suggest that if the effects are real, they aren't just due to caffeine, but may be related to other substances found in these beverages, the researchers say, for example magnesium, lignans (estrogen-like chemicals found in plants), or chlorogenic acids, which are antioxidants that slow the release of sugar into the blood after a meal.
Clinical trials are needed to investigate whether these beverages do indeed help prevent diabetes, the researchers say. If the benefits turn out to be real, they add, health care providers might begin advising patients at risk for diabetes not only to exercise and lose weight, but to drink more tea and coffee, too.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, December 14/28, 2009.
US News and World report
I was told I could buy coffee supplements at my health food store. But then I'd miss the taste and warmth of my favorite brew!
Coffee May Slow Liver Disease
Finding could be good news for those with hepatitis C, researchers say
Posted October 23, 2009
FRIDAY, Oct. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Coffee slows the progression of advanced liver disease in people with chronic hepatitis C, new research finds.
The study included 766 patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) who were asked to report their intake of coffee, green tea and black tea. The patients were seen every three months during the nearly four-year study, and liver biopsies were taken at 18 months and 3.5 years to determine the progression of liver disease.
Patients who drank three or more cups of coffee per day were 53 percent less likely to have liver disease progression than those who didn't drink coffee. Green and black tea didn't appear to have an effect, but tea consumption was low among the study participants, the researchers noted in the report published in the November issue of the journal Hepatology.
"This study is the first to address the association between liver disease progression related to hepatitis C and coffee intake," study leader Neal Freedman, of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, said in a news release from the journal's publisher.
"Given the large number of people affected by HCV, it is important to identify modifiable risk factors associated with the progression of liver disease," Freedman added. "Although we cannot rule out a possible role for other factors that go along with drinking coffee, results from our study suggest that patients with high coffee intake had a lower risk of disease progression."
The study authors cautioned that the findings about coffee's benefits shouldn't be generalized to healthy people.
HCV infects about 2.2 percent of the worldwide population, including more than 3 million Americans. The virus is the leading cause of liver transplantation in the United States and is responsible for 8,000 to 10,000 deaths in the country each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
I was told I could buy coffee supplements at my health food store. But then I'd miss the taste and warmth of my favorite brew!
Coffee May Slow Liver Disease
Finding could be good news for those with hepatitis C, researchers say
Posted October 23, 2009
FRIDAY, Oct. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Coffee slows the progression of advanced liver disease in people with chronic hepatitis C, new research finds.
The study included 766 patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) who were asked to report their intake of coffee, green tea and black tea. The patients were seen every three months during the nearly four-year study, and liver biopsies were taken at 18 months and 3.5 years to determine the progression of liver disease.
Patients who drank three or more cups of coffee per day were 53 percent less likely to have liver disease progression than those who didn't drink coffee. Green and black tea didn't appear to have an effect, but tea consumption was low among the study participants, the researchers noted in the report published in the November issue of the journal Hepatology.
"This study is the first to address the association between liver disease progression related to hepatitis C and coffee intake," study leader Neal Freedman, of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, said in a news release from the journal's publisher.
"Given the large number of people affected by HCV, it is important to identify modifiable risk factors associated with the progression of liver disease," Freedman added. "Although we cannot rule out a possible role for other factors that go along with drinking coffee, results from our study suggest that patients with high coffee intake had a lower risk of disease progression."
The study authors cautioned that the findings about coffee's benefits shouldn't be generalized to healthy people.
HCV infects about 2.2 percent of the worldwide population, including more than 3 million Americans. The virus is the leading cause of liver transplantation in the United States and is responsible for 8,000 to 10,000 deaths in the country each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Well, the beet juice was meant a little tongue-in-cheek. Thanks for pointing out that the sugar in the juice still becomes glucose in the blood.
Let's say water instead, for purposes of my point.
Maybe the answer is in M. Liver's post above ... reading it now.
Let's say water instead, for purposes of my point.
Maybe the answer is in M. Liver's post above ... reading it now.
Excerpted from the study below: "Coffee drinking has also been inversely related to the risk of cirrhosis [18]. In a cohort study, including 59 cases from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, subjects who drank four or more cups of coffee per day had about five fold lower the risk of non coffee drinkers "
personal note: I have read several studies that also show an inverse relationship between HCC and coffee consumption for those with cirrhosis.
http://www.jhep-elsevier.com/article/S0168-8278(05)00018-8/fulltext?refissn=0016-5085&refuid=S0016-5085%2806%2900692-5
Volume 42, Issue 4, Pages 444-446 (April 2005)
Coffee, liver enzymes, cirrhosis and liver cancer
Carlo La Vecchia
published online 25 January 2005.
Several data on a potentially favourable effect of coffee on liver function and liver diseases have accumulated over the last two decades. These span from liver enzymes, to cirrhosis and to hepatocellular carcinoma, and therefore constitute a continuation not only of epidemiological data, but also of biological and clinical evidences.
Coffee consumption, in fact, has been inversely related to gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) activity in studies from Norway, Italy, Finland, France, Japan and the United States [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16]. The inverse relation was particularly strong in high risk subjects, including heavy alcohol drinkers [3], [4], [6], [8], [9], [10]. Thus, in a study of 2494 male self-defence officials from Japan [4], the geometric mean GGT was about 30% lower in subjects who drank five or more cups of coffee per day compared to nondrinkers. In another Japanese dataset [10], the inverse relation between coffee and GGT was restricted, or stronger, in alcohol drinkers.
Although GGT is a relevant indicator of cirrhosis risk, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity is a more specific marker of liver injury than GGT, and a few population-based surveys from Italy and Japan [4], [10], [15], [16] found a similar inverse relation between coffee drinking and ALT. Furthermore, among 5944 adults in the Third US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 1988–94, the multivariate relative risk (RR) for elevated ALT activity (>43U/L) was 0.56 in subjects who drank more than two cups of coffee per day compared to non-coffee drinkers [17]. The inverse relation was consistent across strata of major covariates, including indicators of liver injury and alcohol drinking. This is of specific interest, since coffee may be a substitute for alcoholic beverages on an individual and on a population level, and indicates therefore that the favourable effect of coffee cannot be accounted for only by lower alcohol drinking in (heavy) coffee consumers.
Coffee drinking has also been inversely related to the risk of cirrhosis [18]. In a cohort study, including 59 cases from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, subjects who drank four or more cups of coffee per day had about five fold lower the risk of non coffee drinkers [19]. In the same dataset, coffee was inversely related to the risk of cirrhosis death (multivariate RR=0.77 for coffee drinkers versus nondrinkers [20]).
A case-control study from Italy, including 115 cases, showed an inverse relation between coffee and the risk of cirrhosis, and a favorable effect of coffee on alcohol-related cirrhosis risk [21]. Another larger Italian study, which included 274 cases and 458 controls, also showed a strong inverse relation between coffee drinking and cirrhosis, with a RR of 0.16 for drinkers of four or more cups per day compared to non-coffee drinkers. The apparent protection was consistent across strata of alcohol drinking, as well as of serum markers of hepatitis B and C [22].
In a hospital-based case-control study of digestive tract and liver diseases from Milan, Italy, including 101 cases with cirrhosis and 1538 controls, the RR was 0.77 for subjects drinking one cup of coffee per day, 0.57 for two, and 0.29 for three or more cups compared to non coffee drinkers. The RR for 40 years of coffee consumption or more was 0.45. The inverse trend in risk between cancer risk and the number of cups drunk and between cancer risk and duration of coffee drinking were both significant. [23].
Cirrhosis is a major correlate of hepatocellular carcinoma [24], [25], [26], [27], and the relation between coffee drinking and the risk of primary liver cancer has been examined in at least two studies. An Italian case-control study [28] based on 151 cases with hepatocellular carcinoma, reported a multivariate RR of 0.78 for drinkers of ≥3 cups of coffee per day, compared to non coffee drinkers. In a Greek case-control study [26], including 333 cases, the age- and sex-adjusted RR was 0.7 for drinkers of ≥20 cups of coffee per week compared to non drinkers.
In an updated and combined analysis of the above mentioned Greek and Italian datasets, which included a total of 844 cases and 1912 controls, the multivariate RR was 0.7 for drinkers of three or more cups of coffee per day compared to non-coffee drinkers [29]. The apparent favourable effect of coffee consumption on hepatocellular carcinoma may be due to its inverse relation with cirrhosis, but allowance for clinical history of cirrhosis did not totally account for the inverse association in the combined analysis [29]. However, allowance for clinical history of cirrhosis may well be subject to underdiagnosis, and hence residual confounding may be present. More important, the RR for the highest level of coffee drinking was only of borderline statistical significance, and even modest residual bias or confounding could well explain the apparent inverse association.
The study by Gelatti et al. in this issue of the Journal [30], a hospital-based case-control study of 250 cases and 500 controls from northern Italy, provided additional relevant quantification of the inverse relation between coffee and hepatocellular carcinoma. Compared with non coffee drinkers, the RRs were 0.8 for drinkers of 1–2 cups per day, 0.4 for those of 3–4 cups, and 0.3 for drinkers of five or more cups per day. The inverse relation between coffee and primary liver cancer is therefore apparently stronger than in previous studies, indicating that the relation is probably real, and not due to chance alone. The combined, pooled RR from three published studies of coffee and hepatocellular carcinoma for drinkers of three or more cups of coffee per day as compared to non coffee drinkers is therefore around 0.6 (Table 1). More important, the study by Gelatti et al. provides original information on the independent effect of coffee from the major recognized risk factors for primary liver cancer. The inverse relation with coffee, in fact, was of similar magnitude in subjects negative or positive for HBV or HCV serum markers, as well as in non- or moderate drinkers and in heavy drinkers. The data were inadequate to investigate tobacco, another known liver carcinogen [26], [31], [32], and its potential interaction with coffee.
personal note: I have read several studies that also show an inverse relationship between HCC and coffee consumption for those with cirrhosis.
http://www.jhep-elsevier.com/article/S0168-8278(05)00018-8/fulltext?refissn=0016-5085&refuid=S0016-5085%2806%2900692-5
Volume 42, Issue 4, Pages 444-446 (April 2005)
Coffee, liver enzymes, cirrhosis and liver cancer
Carlo La Vecchia
published online 25 January 2005.
Several data on a potentially favourable effect of coffee on liver function and liver diseases have accumulated over the last two decades. These span from liver enzymes, to cirrhosis and to hepatocellular carcinoma, and therefore constitute a continuation not only of epidemiological data, but also of biological and clinical evidences.
Coffee consumption, in fact, has been inversely related to gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) activity in studies from Norway, Italy, Finland, France, Japan and the United States [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16]. The inverse relation was particularly strong in high risk subjects, including heavy alcohol drinkers [3], [4], [6], [8], [9], [10]. Thus, in a study of 2494 male self-defence officials from Japan [4], the geometric mean GGT was about 30% lower in subjects who drank five or more cups of coffee per day compared to nondrinkers. In another Japanese dataset [10], the inverse relation between coffee and GGT was restricted, or stronger, in alcohol drinkers.
Although GGT is a relevant indicator of cirrhosis risk, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity is a more specific marker of liver injury than GGT, and a few population-based surveys from Italy and Japan [4], [10], [15], [16] found a similar inverse relation between coffee drinking and ALT. Furthermore, among 5944 adults in the Third US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 1988–94, the multivariate relative risk (RR) for elevated ALT activity (>43U/L) was 0.56 in subjects who drank more than two cups of coffee per day compared to non-coffee drinkers [17]. The inverse relation was consistent across strata of major covariates, including indicators of liver injury and alcohol drinking. This is of specific interest, since coffee may be a substitute for alcoholic beverages on an individual and on a population level, and indicates therefore that the favourable effect of coffee cannot be accounted for only by lower alcohol drinking in (heavy) coffee consumers.
Coffee drinking has also been inversely related to the risk of cirrhosis [18]. In a cohort study, including 59 cases from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, subjects who drank four or more cups of coffee per day had about five fold lower the risk of non coffee drinkers [19]. In the same dataset, coffee was inversely related to the risk of cirrhosis death (multivariate RR=0.77 for coffee drinkers versus nondrinkers [20]).
A case-control study from Italy, including 115 cases, showed an inverse relation between coffee and the risk of cirrhosis, and a favorable effect of coffee on alcohol-related cirrhosis risk [21]. Another larger Italian study, which included 274 cases and 458 controls, also showed a strong inverse relation between coffee drinking and cirrhosis, with a RR of 0.16 for drinkers of four or more cups per day compared to non-coffee drinkers. The apparent protection was consistent across strata of alcohol drinking, as well as of serum markers of hepatitis B and C [22].
In a hospital-based case-control study of digestive tract and liver diseases from Milan, Italy, including 101 cases with cirrhosis and 1538 controls, the RR was 0.77 for subjects drinking one cup of coffee per day, 0.57 for two, and 0.29 for three or more cups compared to non coffee drinkers. The RR for 40 years of coffee consumption or more was 0.45. The inverse trend in risk between cancer risk and the number of cups drunk and between cancer risk and duration of coffee drinking were both significant. [23].
Cirrhosis is a major correlate of hepatocellular carcinoma [24], [25], [26], [27], and the relation between coffee drinking and the risk of primary liver cancer has been examined in at least two studies. An Italian case-control study [28] based on 151 cases with hepatocellular carcinoma, reported a multivariate RR of 0.78 for drinkers of ≥3 cups of coffee per day, compared to non coffee drinkers. In a Greek case-control study [26], including 333 cases, the age- and sex-adjusted RR was 0.7 for drinkers of ≥20 cups of coffee per week compared to non drinkers.
In an updated and combined analysis of the above mentioned Greek and Italian datasets, which included a total of 844 cases and 1912 controls, the multivariate RR was 0.7 for drinkers of three or more cups of coffee per day compared to non-coffee drinkers [29]. The apparent favourable effect of coffee consumption on hepatocellular carcinoma may be due to its inverse relation with cirrhosis, but allowance for clinical history of cirrhosis did not totally account for the inverse association in the combined analysis [29]. However, allowance for clinical history of cirrhosis may well be subject to underdiagnosis, and hence residual confounding may be present. More important, the RR for the highest level of coffee drinking was only of borderline statistical significance, and even modest residual bias or confounding could well explain the apparent inverse association.
The study by Gelatti et al. in this issue of the Journal [30], a hospital-based case-control study of 250 cases and 500 controls from northern Italy, provided additional relevant quantification of the inverse relation between coffee and hepatocellular carcinoma. Compared with non coffee drinkers, the RRs were 0.8 for drinkers of 1–2 cups per day, 0.4 for those of 3–4 cups, and 0.3 for drinkers of five or more cups per day. The inverse relation between coffee and primary liver cancer is therefore apparently stronger than in previous studies, indicating that the relation is probably real, and not due to chance alone. The combined, pooled RR from three published studies of coffee and hepatocellular carcinoma for drinkers of three or more cups of coffee per day as compared to non coffee drinkers is therefore around 0.6 (Table 1). More important, the study by Gelatti et al. provides original information on the independent effect of coffee from the major recognized risk factors for primary liver cancer. The inverse relation with coffee, in fact, was of similar magnitude in subjects negative or positive for HBV or HCV serum markers, as well as in non- or moderate drinkers and in heavy drinkers. The data were inadequate to investigate tobacco, another known liver carcinogen [26], [31], [32], and its potential interaction with coffee.
"when people use the jucing machines with carrots, beets, apples, etc they don't realize that they are getting way to much sugar along with the nutreints."
I agree. Not only are they getting a lot of sugar, they are missing out on the beneficial fiber they would get from cousuming the whole vegetables and fruits.
I agree. Not only are they getting a lot of sugar, they are missing out on the beneficial fiber they would get from cousuming the whole vegetables and fruits.
a glass of beet juice has as much if not more sugar then soda. of course beet juice is real sugar and soda is that dreadful fructose but still is a lot of sugar. And as everyone knows sugar is bad with liver disease.
when people use the jucing machines with carrots, beets, apples, etc they don't realize that they are getting way to much sugar along with the nutreints.
when people use the jucing machines with carrots, beets, apples, etc they don't realize that they are getting way to much sugar along with the nutreints.
Maybe the coffee drinkers are at lest risk simply because everytime they drink a cup, they are not having the soda pop. It makes sense that if you are drinking coffee or tea on your lunch or snack instead of the sugar-laden soda pop or juice, then that would really make sense that you would be at less risk. Replacing the soda pop with anything (beet juice may come to mind ;-)) would lessen the risk just by eliminating the sugar in the soda.
It would be nice to see if the studies can tickle this factor out of the results to see if it is really something in the coffee or tea.
Brent
It would be nice to see if the studies can tickle this factor out of the results to see if it is really something in the coffee or tea.
Brent
Cocaine was good for you too back it the 30`s too,it was prescribed to anyone.
If coffee had been discovered in the sixties it would be hailed as the greatest herbal health drink on the planet. Health food zealots, as all zealots, (science, political, religious, whatever) have thier doctrines, and anything that challenges them will bring down hades fire! Seems to me the verdict on coffee is in. I went rom 2 cups a morn to three because of the data available.
"Back in 50`s smoking was good for you"
Thats true, my dad who is a Md has been blowing smoke on me and my siblings faces our entire child hood.
Later in the sixties when my mother got it prescribed, preludin (phenmetraline) was good for you if overweighted.
But later in the 70`s it was not, and got illegal but I took it and it was healthy in my mind, I thought I was bloody fuuucin Einstein.
Later on I found out it was not healthy at all and the Einstein stuff was just another illusion.
But coffee might have protected my liver since i had so little damage after 35 years of HCV infection stage 0 grade 1.
Btw I have always had low blood presure (good low) inspite of drinking 2-3 litres of very strong java every day for the last 25 years.
ca
Thats true, my dad who is a Md has been blowing smoke on me and my siblings faces our entire child hood.
Later in the sixties when my mother got it prescribed, preludin (phenmetraline) was good for you if overweighted.
But later in the 70`s it was not, and got illegal but I took it and it was healthy in my mind, I thought I was bloody fuuucin Einstein.
Later on I found out it was not healthy at all and the Einstein stuff was just another illusion.
But coffee might have protected my liver since i had so little damage after 35 years of HCV infection stage 0 grade 1.
Btw I have always had low blood presure (good low) inspite of drinking 2-3 litres of very strong java every day for the last 25 years.
ca
more studies show the benefits of coffee. if blood pressure is a concern then decaf has shown to help as well. it is good to know that something people enjoy is good for you. usually anything that tastes good is bad for you, not this time :-)
Ahh, but coffee also runs risk of increasing blood pressures. Is this something wise for folks with liver issues that may be leading to increased pressures already?
Always pros and cons, one study says Coffee good, another Coffee bad, another Coffee very good, while still another Coffee very bad!
In the end if a person wants to find justification, there is always amble evidence.
Always pros and cons, one study says Coffee good, another Coffee bad, another Coffee very good, while still another Coffee very bad!
In the end if a person wants to find justification, there is always amble evidence.
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