Daily Coffee News Staff | December 17, 2025
A major academic literature review underscores coffee’s protective effects against liver diseases while outlining numerous potential underlying mechanisms.
A research team affiliated with two public health institutions in Mexico pored over previous research on coffee’s relationship with liver health, finding that consumption is associated with lower risks of liver disease, and slower progressions of fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cancer.
The authors describe several overlapping mechanisms — including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antifibrotic and microbiome-modulating — through which coffee’s bioactive compounds may be protecting the liver.
“Given its low …
Daily Coffee News Staff | December 17, 2025
A major academic literature review underscores coffee’s protective effects against liver diseases while outlining numerous potential underlying mechanisms.
A research team affiliated with two public health institutions in Mexico pored over previous research on coffee’s relationship with liver health, finding that consumption is associated with lower risks of liver disease, and slower progressions of fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cancer.
The authors describe several overlapping mechanisms — including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antifibrotic and microbiome-modulating — through which coffee’s bioactive compounds may be protecting the liver.
“Given its low cost and high availability, coffee could represent a simple and viable dietary intervention in the management of liver diseases, especially in high-risk populations,” the authors wrote in the paper’s conclusion.
The full study, titled “Coffee for the liver: a mechanistic approach,” was published Dec. 2 in Biochemical Pharmacology, an Elsevier title.
The authors hailed from two separate research institutions within the Government of Mexico’s education department. The study was funded by Mexico’s Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation (SECIHTI).
The paper fits into a growing body of research that has linked coffee with better liver outcomes. A large UK Biobank analysis in 2021 found that coffee drinkers had a 21% lower risk of chronic liver disease, a 20% lower risk of chronic or fatty liver disease and a 49% lower risk of death from chronic liver disease compared to non-drinkers.
In undertaking a “mechanistic” review, the researchers in Mexico sought to explain such outcomes, finding numerous pathways through which coffee might protect liver injuries or reduce scarring (fibrosis), such as dampening oxidative stress, modulating inflammatory signaling or improving lipid metabolism.
While all of this is by and large good news for coffee drinkers, the authors warned that coffee should not be considered in isolation, but rather as part of a broader set of modifiable lifestyle factors that affect liver health.
“Combining coffee consumption with healthy dietary patterns, regular physical exercise and reduced alcohol consumption could enhance its hepatoprotective benefits and contribute to better overall liver health,” they wrote.
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