Reducing The Risk Of Liver Cancer Is Easier Than You Think: Drink Coffee!
Check out this latest guest post by Greg Haver of coffeeorbust.com. Greg dives into the latest research on how coffee reduces liver cancer risk. Once you’re done with this post, check out the other great content on coffeeorbust.com.
While I usually tout moderation pretty ardently, this is the one time science has literally proven that taking in an enormous amount of one substance can be super healthy for you. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s not alcohol.
And tea drinkers can choke on the smoke from coffee roasters, because drinking a mug of java has a benefit that tea can’t compete with: coffee greatly reduces the risk of liver cancer.
Yes, on top of doing a world of good against cirrhosis, reducing the risk for type II diabetes, and the whole host of antioxidant benefits, coffee fights cancer.
Who Says So?
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Southampton in the UK somehow interacted with 2.25 million people across 26 observational studies. If that doesn’t offer enough credo for you, you’re forever going to be dissatisfied with life, friend.
These studies were global, too, so it meshed together findings from the US, Japan, Europe, Hong Kong, and Singapore. There were eight case-control groups, too, but they do notate that the caffeine content wasn’t regulated at all. While the average mug of joe has 95 mg, the study didn’t account for the multiple ways we consume java across different cultures.
They did, however, find that coffee’s benefits are pervasive; they apply whether you’re a smoker, with or without the presence of alcohol, have Type II diabetes mellitus, have a high mass body index, or have hepatitis B or C.
Why Do I Care?
You are clearly not hearing me! Coffee can significantly reduce the risk of cancer! There are more numbers and cool things to go along with that, and I’m getting to it, but just read those words a few times.
We, a group of intelligent beings, are struggling to find ways to prevent cancer other than yearly screenings to catch it at early stages. Coffee, that stuff you mindlessly pour into a mug every morning, then again at 2pm to mitigate the mid-afternoon drowsiness, is dominating the game.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common form of liver cancer, and it often develops from those stricken with chronic liver disease.
Liver cancer often has a poor prognosis, which largely is what makes it the leading cause of cancer deaths globally. In the US, 40,710 adults will be diagnosed with liver cancer this year alone, while men are three times more likely than women to develop it. The general 5-year survival rate is at a despairingly low 18%.
I’m not trying to make it as depressing as a high school poetry club reading in here, but I’m just trying to emphasize how damn impressive it is that coffee’s able to hold this hellish cancer at bay.
Okay, I Care. What Now?
Drinking one cup of coffee per day reduces your risk by 20%. Two knocks that number up to 35%, and drinking five cups of this magical bean juice reduces your risk for liver cancer by a whopping 50%.
They also measured those who drank decaffeinated coffee and found that it decreased the risk of liver cancer, but not as drastically as the caffeinated version, so everything is right with the world.
There wasn’t any documentation for consumption of more than five cups, but, well, to be honest, we all know over five cups of coffee per day and you evolve into a superhuman being impervious to any and all ailments.
What’s even cooler is that this study also showed that the decrease in risk is available to even those jumping on the coffee bandwagon later in life! You don’t have to have been endlessly consuming it for 10 years (*cough* me *cough*) to reap the benefits. March your butt to the nearest coffee shop and take a sip knowing that you’ve immediately reduced your risk like the total boss of your life you are.
You don’t even need to prepare it in any special way – boil it, brew it, filter it, whatever your cute little heart desires. As long as it makes its way from the mug to your gut, you can take pride in the fact that you’re doing your body good.
Disclaimer and Conclusion
Drinking coffee isn’t for everyone, and drinking five cups of the stuff every day really isn’t for everyone. The researchers didn’t measure whether or not imbibing that much caffeine outweighs the benefits of reducing liver cancer.
Read your body, search your soul, and do what’s right for you. If you want to drink a cup or two and bask in the benefits like reducing the risk of liver cancer, totally do it! If you’ve long since hopped on the caffeinated train like yours truly, you just keep doing your thing.
It may be worth mentioning that Organic coffee is a must as well, due to toxic pesticides and the lower mold content! Great article!
That’s a great point Sue! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for the information – there are just soooo many “experts” that want to deny you a lovely “HEALTHY” cup of coffee – I have to admit I did not know it was so healthy in terms of cancers, “reducing the risk of liver cancer” and etc – I have saved the information given by Dr (wonderful) Mindy! (in order that I many be able to show the “experts” that it is not just more “clap trap from the internet.”
I have just purchased a Sage Barista Express – Espresso machine and (the organic coffee to go with it) but already I have got some very negative feed back – so thank you once again – love to listen to the proper experts such as Dr Mindy.
Kind regards
Suzanne Barley
Thanks for commenting Suzanne!
I am writing you because I have not found any companies that engage in conversation about the health benefits of coffee. I used to buy coffee online at amazon canada from a company that there main focus was preserving antioxidants in coffee. No company has done this and if I were to guess yours also? Anyway, the company is no longer in business which I was very disappointed in. I normally can’t drink coffee without cream, but this coffee I could do without. The process to preserve the antioxidants after roasting the beans must have been to expensive to keep up or sustain so it looks like they went out of business. I hope someone will reach out to me and talk about this process and even look at an opportunity to implement it in your company. Here is what Antioxidant Cafe proclaimed to preserve the antioxidants when they were in business:
“What does Antioxidant Cafe do differently then all other coffee companies do? Antioxidant Cafe’s coffee is produced that has developed by American Cancer Research and The Oncology Group. This triple-patented process extracts the antioxidants from a portion of the coffee beans before roasting, and adds those antioxidants to the remaining coffee beans after roasting is completed. The result is a gourmet roast that contains up to 6 times the antioxidant levels of other gourmet brands.”
This was taken from a brocure that was mailed out to me with their products as well as they were selling and marketing their product in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Honestly it was the best tasting coffee I have had. I have never been this excited and disappointed at the same time when they no longer were in business. I still have the brochure and will share my passion to anyone who will listen. I have tried to reach out to several companies and I just got a bold no in responds. They say it is way to expensive and no one will buy into it. No one will buy into it because it is not marketed properly and also it won’t work if you don’t offer other options for consumers. You won’t be in business if all you are selling is this antioxidant coffee. A person must branch out to other types of coffee as you are doing now, but for those that strictly want this type like myself will pay for the benefits it offers. Who knows maybe the company was corrupt in its business ventures or they chewed off more then they could. Anyway, I am hoping to hear back from you regarding this sooner then later.
Kind regards,
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
This is very interesting!
I did some digging on archive.org to find an archived snapshot of their old website. After perusing this it’s not really clear how they did what they claimed. I know of no technology that allows for pulling the antioxidants and then re-infusing after the roasting process. Typically, green beans are quite bitter. So I can’t imagine re-infusing post roast would taste very good.
What is interesting, however, is it sounds similar to what Swiss Water does to decaffeinate coffee. They boil the green beans in nothing but water which removes 99.9% of the caffeine and flavor. Then they have a process for re-infusing the flavor from the green beans back into the beans minus the caffeine. Those beans are then delivered to us and we roast them.
I would be curious for you to try our decaf and see if it tastes similar to what you remember Antioxidant Cafe tasting.
If you live in the US, I would love to ship you a bag for free to see what you think.
Thanks for commenting and bringing this to our attention.
TJ