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| Credit: www.west-info.eu |
Your
morning cup of tea or coffee may be doing more than just perking you up before
work.
Coffee
consumption has been reported to significantly decreases all-cause mortality in
women. Coffee and tea have also been reported to reduce risk of Alzheimer's
disease, dementia, gallstone disease, diabetes and Parkinson's disease and to
improve cognitive performance. They may also protect your heart.
Now,
an international team of researchers led by Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
(Duke-NUS) and the Duke University School of Medicine suggest that increased
caffeine intake may reduce fatty liver in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver
disease (NAFLD).
Worldwide,
70 percent of people diagnosed with diabetes and obesity have NAFLD, the major
cause of fatty liver not due to excessive alcohol consumption. It is estimated
that 30 percent of adults in the United States have this condition, and its
prevalence is rising in Singapore. There are no effective treatments for NAFLD
except diet and exercise.
Using
cell culture and mouse models, the researchers observed that caffeine
stimulates the metabolization of lipids stored in liver cells and decreased the
fatty liver of mice that were fed a high-fat diet. These findings suggest that
consuming the equivalent caffeine intake of four cups of coffee or tea a day
may be beneficial in preventing and protecting against the progression of NAFLD
in humans.
The
team said this research could lead to the development of caffeine-like drugs
that do not have the usual side effects related to caffeine, but retain its
therapeutic effects on the liver. It could serve as a starting point for
studies on the full benefits of caffeine and related therapeutics in humans.
###
The
above story is based August 16, 2013 news release by Duke-NUS
Graduate Medical School Singapore.
The
findings have been epublished ahead of print:
Sinha
RA, Farah BL, Singh BK, Siddique MM, Li Y, Wu Y, Ilkayeva OR, Gooding J, Ching
J, Zhou J, Martinez L, Xie S, Bay BH, Summers SA, Newgard CB, Yen PM. Caffeine stimulates hepatic lipid
metabolism via autophagy-lysosomal pathway. Hepatology. 2013 Aug 8. doi: 10.1002/hep.26667
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