Hispanics, pick up that cup of coffee!
Are you a Hispanic? Do you like coffee? Well good news, your fondness for that “cup of joe” can be showing you liver some love.…
Are you a Hispanic? Do you like coffee? Well good news, your fondness for that “cup of joe” can be showing you liver some love.
Drinking 2 or more cups of coffee daily could reduce an individual’s risk of death from liver cirrhosis (liver scarring) by as much as 66 percent; great news for Hispanics who are disproportionately affected by this medical condition in the United States.
Cirrhosis of the liver can be caused by a number of factors, including exposure to hepatitis viruses, alcohol abuse, obesity, and diabetesall issues the Hispanic population faces, making liver cirrhosis and liver disease one of the primary diseases affecting this demographic.
SEE ALSO: Chronic liver disease: Major health issue for U.S. Hispanics
According to the Office of Minority Health (OMH), Hispanics–men and women– are twice as likely to suffer from chronic liver disease compared to non-Hispanic whites. Hispanic men are 1.7 times more likely to die from liver disease than non-Hispanic white men, and Hispanic women are 1.8 times more likely to die from the condition compared to non-Hispanic white women.
So could coffee really help reduce the risk of liver cirrhosis? Experts are saying yes, and Hispanics might just want to consider the data.
According to a new study published in the journal Hepatology, researchers focused on the effects coffee, alcohol, black tea, green tea and soft drinks have on mortality risks from cirrhosis. Of all the products tested, only coffee had any impact on cirrhosis mortality. Coffee intake was linked with a lower risk of death from cirrhosis, and the researchers note this was particularly the case for non-viral hepatitis related cirrhosis.