The Magic Beans
Fill up that coffee mug! A new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found people who drink coffee daily are less likely to die prematurely.
Over 520,000 people across 10 European countries were analyzed on how often – and how much – coffee they drank. The researchers performed lab work to test for liver and metabolic function, along with heart disease risk.
The study found that men who drank the most coffee were 12 percent less likely to die of any cause during the 16-year-follow-up than others who didn’t consume any coffee. Guys who drank the most coffee were also 59 percent less likely to die of digestive disease over the follow-up than those who didn’t.
The more the men drank coffee, the lower their levels of certain liver enzymes like ALT, ALP, and AST tended to be. This is important since these enzymes in high levels can signal liver damage or dysfunction.
It doesn’t matter whether people drank regular or decaf, what the strength was, or what concentration they had. Researchers say it’s even possible that the caffeine in coffee can help reduce the buildup of scar tissue in the liver.
