Coffee Can Protect, Restore Liver Health

 With all my vast reasons for coffee, another one.

coffee (375 posts to February 2012)

Coffee Can Protect, Restore Liver Health

TOPLINE:

Several bioactive compounds in coffee exert antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antifibrotic, and metabolic effects that reduce the incidence and progression of liver diseases.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a narrative review exploring epidemiologic, experimental, and clinical evidence on the impact of coffee consumption on liver health.
• They compiled and summarized data related to clinical benefits for specific liver diseases, including viral hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease (ALD), metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
• The review also examined the cellular and molecular mechanisms that appear to underlie coffee’s effects on liver health.

TAKEAWAY:

• Regular coffee consumption is associated with lower incidence and progression of chronic viral hepatitis, ALD, MASLD, HCC, cirrhosis, and fibrosis. Several bioactive compounds in coffee, such as caffeine, chlorogenic acids, cafestol, kahweol, and polyphenols, are responsible for these benefits due to their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antifibrotic, lipid metabolism-modulating, and gut microbiota-modulating effects.
• Caffeine and chlorogenic acids increase the levels of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase. Caffeine and polyphenols inhibit nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase activity, which is one of the main sources of reactive oxygen species in the fibrotic liver.
• Several coffee compounds, particularly caffeine, exert anti-inflammatory effects, including inhibition of the nuclear factor kappa B and toll-like receptor 4 inflammatory pathways, and of a key inflammasome leading to reductions in levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1-beta, and interleukin-6.
• Antifibrotic mechanisms exerted by several coffee compounds include suppression of proteins involved in fibrogenesis, such as transforming growth factor-beta, alpha-smooth muscle actin, connective tissue growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, and matrix metalloproteinases, as well as inhibition of hepatic stellate cell activation, which reduces collagen synthesis.
• Caffeine, cafestol, and kahweol reduce lipid accumulation. For example, caffeine inhibits sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c and acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase, thus decreasing lipogenesis and preventing excessive accumulation of liver fat.

IN PRACTICE:

“Given its low cost and high availability, coffee could represent a simple and viable dietary intervention in the management of liver diseases, especially in high-risk populations,” the authors wrote. “Combining coffee consumption with healthy dietary patterns, regular physical exercise, and reduced alcohol consumption could enhance its hepatoprotective benefits and contribute to better overall liver health.”

SOURCE:

The study, led by Eduardo E. Vargas-Pozada of the Instituto Politecnico Nacional in Mexico City, Mexico, was published online in Biochemical Pharmacology.