Coffee consumption associated with reduced risk of autoimmune liver disease

Research presented today at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) explores new discoveries in liver disease research, with findings about the impact of coffee on autoimmune disease and palliative care for cirrhotic patients.

While coffee consumption recently has been associated with reduced risk of fibrosis, a new study found that even a few more cups of java each month also correlate with lower risk for a particular autoimmune liver disease. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, linked coffee consumption with reduced risk of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a disease of the bile ducts that causes inflammation and subsequent duct obstruction that ultimately can lead to cirrhosis of the liver, liver failure and biliary cancer.

"While rare, PSC has extremely detrimental effects," said Craig Lammert, MD, instructor of medicine at Mayo Clinic. "We are always looking for ways to mitigate risk, and our first-time finding points to a novel environmental effect that might also help us to determine the cause of this and other devastating autoimmune diseases."

Funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Liver Foundation, the study examined the largest cohort of patients with PSC and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) in the U.S. as well as a healthy control group. Data showed that coffee consumption was associated with reduced risk of PSC, but not PBC. PSC patients were much more likely to never consume coffee compared with the control group. The control group also spent nearly 20 percent more of their life regularly drinking coffee.

Study highlights need of terminally ill cirrhotic patients

Other DDW research illuminates the need for better palliative care for terminally ill cirrhotic patients who are rejected for a liver transplant. A retrospective cohort review of patients previously assessed or listed for liver transplant by the University of Alberta in Canada found that only 3 percent of patients in the study died while in hospice, a hallmark of palliative care.

About 83 percent of adults drink coffee in the U.S., the world’s biggest consumer of the beverage, up from 78 percent a year earlier, according to the National Coffee Association’s 2013 survey.

The New York-based group said today in a statement that 63 percent of adults drink coffee every day, compared with 65 percent a year earlier and 58 percent in 2011. The data was compiled from an online survey of 2,840 respondents from mid- January to mid-February.

Among respondents 18 to 24 years old, daily consumption fell to 41 percent from 50 percent. The total for those 25 to 39 years old dropped to 59 percent from 63 percent. The association released the survey results in San Francisco at its annual conference.

About 13 percent of the U.S. population used the single-cup format, up from 4 percent two years earlier.