Four coffees a day could slash a person¹s chances of developing liver cirrhosis by almost two thirds, according scientists from Southampton University.
Just one cup a day lowered the risk of the disease by 22 per cent. Two cups reduced someone¹s risk by 43 per cent.
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Three cups slashed the chance of liver cirrhosis by 57 per cent and four cups reduced the risk by a whopping 65 per cent.
The researchers studied data from nine earlier studies that included 430,000 participants - 1,990 of which had cirrhosis.
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Eight out of nine studies suggested increasing coffee consumption by two cups a day could significantly reduce the risk of the liver condition.
The risk even continued to decline as more coffee was consumed.
Cirrhosis is a slowly progressing disease in which healthy liver tissue is replaced with scar tissue, eventually preventing the liver from
functioning properly.
This scar tissue blocks the flow of blood through the liver and slows the processing of nutrients, hormones, drugs and naturally produced toxins.
Typically the disease comes on slowly over months or years.
More than a million people die from cirrhosis each year worldwide.
Lead study author Dr. Oliver Kennedy said: ³Cirrhosis is potentially fatal and there is no cure as such.
“Therefore, it is significant that the risk of developing cirrhosis may be reduced by consumption of coffee, a cheap, ubiquitous and well-tolerated beverage.”
The researchers were also keen to point out they were unsure what compounds in coffee precisely benefited the liver.
Despite the current findings, the benefits of high coffee consumption can be murky. A 2013 study discovered five or more cups a day increased a person’s chances of storing fat in the abdomen.
A recent study dismissed the link between coffee and migraines.