Coffee Could Combat Liver Damage, According to Study

Coffee isn’t just good for keeping you up. It can also apparently help your long-term liver health.

One recent meta-study has found that the liquid energy booster could reduce the risk of type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. If you’re a heavy drinker, it may also lower your liver damage risks (within reason of course). Conducted by the University of Southampton, the study used pooled results from nine previous research studies to obtain their findings. These studies recorded incidences of liver cirrhosis and caffeine consumption, with a total of 432,133 participants across a large age demographic results contributing to the university’s findings.

Although it’s difficult to pinpoint how the caffeine is working to protect the liver considering coffee’s complex chemical makeup, the meta-study findings illustrated an increase in coffee consumption by two cups a day cut cirrhosis risk in half. Drinking four cuts it down by 65 percent. Cirrhosis of the liver can be caused by excessive alcohol consumption, but also hepatitis infections, immune disorders, obesity or diabetes.

The risk decrease also applies to death rates. So drink up! Coffee, we mean.