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“Previous studies suggested that coffee might benefit the liver, but most were smaller or looked at only one piece of the puzzle,” said Hyunseok Kim, MD, MPH, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai and corresponding author of the study.
“We followed hundreds of thousands of people for more than a decade and looked at their health outcomes along with liver MRI scans and blood protein analyses.
Together, those findings help explain the biological mechanisms behind coffee’s association with better liver health.”
Clinical leaders emphasized that while coffee consumption is beneficial, individuals should maintain established health practices and consult doctors regarding high caffeine intake if they have pre-existing conditions.
“Our findings support moderate coffee consumption for people who already enjoy and tolerate it well,” said Ju Dong Yang, MD, medical director of the Liver Cancer Program at Cedars-Sinai.
“However, we would not recommend that someone begin drinking coffee solely for liver protection based on this study alone.
Prevention should continue to focus on maintaining a healthy weight, limiting alcohol, exercising regularly, and managing blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol.”
Future medical research will concentrate on analyzing non-caffeine compounds in coffee to isolate specific therapeutic molecular targets.
“The next step in our research is to identify the specific compounds in coffee that are responsible for these liver-protective associations,” said Shelly Lu, MD, the Women’s Guild Chair in Gastroenterology and director of the Karsh Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Cedars-Sinai.
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“Our findings point to biological pathways involving inflammation and scarring and highlight molecular targets that future research can explore to better understand how coffee may influence liver health and who stands to benefit the most.”
