Pace coffee drinkers rejoice!

The day has come for coffee drinkers to prove that their addiction is doing them some good! A new review by the University of Southampton and the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom found that coffee consumption might link to cirrhosis risk reduction.

The liver functions to clean blood, aid in digestion and infection fighting, make proteins, and stores energy, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH). Cirrhosis is a liver disease where damage results in scar tissue. When the body cannot fight off the scar tissue, the body suffers when the liver fails to perform the aforementioned functions.

Excessive alcohol consumption can be a cause of cirrhosis, which students who go out frequently should keep in mind if they willingly drink above their limits.

The report titled “Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis: Coffee Consumption and the Risk of Cirrhosis” used nine studies to review the relationships between drinking coffee and cirrhosis risk to create the systematic review in the March 2016 edition of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The faculty and researchers concluded that subjects who drank at least two cups of coffee daily experienced a reduction in their risk for cirrhosis. Many of the subjects were already at high risk for cirrhosis, which can imply different effects ranging on severity of the disease.

Pace students had mixed reactions to the news of the review.

Senior Asma Vohra was ecstatic to hear the news.

“Finally, I can justify my coffee dependency by saying that I’m just looking out for my liver,” Vohra said.

Another student who reported drinking at least two cups of coffee per day while at Pace enjoyed learning that her habit to survive long hours in the library was doing her some good.

Some non-coffee drinkers are not persuaded by the newly reported findings.

Senior Theresa Thomas explained to the Chronicle that she would not try coffee, even with the new benefits revealed.

The UK research team only analyzed the studies rather than conduct their own.

Dr. Oliver Kennedy from the University of Southampton discussed wanting to host their own set of clinical trials for further research in the relationship. With this research in the future, Kennedy hopes to help health care providers change their recommendations to reduce cirrhosis risk, CNN Social Discovery Producer Jareem Imam reported.