Coffee associated with lower liver cancer risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Drinking coffee appears to lower the risk of developing liver cancer, according to findings published in the medical journal Gastroenterology.

“Data on potential beneficial effects of coffee on liver function and liver diseases have accrued over the last two decades,” Drs. Susanna C. Larsson and Alicja Wolk, from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, write. Several studies have found an inverse relationship between coffee consumption and liver enzymes levels that indicate a risk of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis.

The researchers therefore conducted a large review, or “meta-analysis,” of published epidemiological studies to look at the association between coffee consumption and the risk of liver cancer. The meta-analysis included 11 studies involving 2,260 liver cancer patients and 239,146 individuals without liver cancer who served as a comparison group.

An inverse association between coffee consumption and liver cancer risk was observed in all of the studies, and this association was statistically significant in six studies.

For every 2 cups of coffee per day, the investigators observed a 43-percent reduced risk of liver cancer.

A protective effect of coffee consumption on liver cancer is biologically plausible,” Larsson and Wolk point out. “Coffee contains large amounts of antioxidants, such as chlorogenic acids,” which combat oxidative stress and inhibit the formation of carcinogens. Furthermore, experimental animal studies have specifically shown that coffee and chlorogenic acids have an inhibitory effect on liver cancer.

Source:
Reuters

Mobile Business wants to stay put, sometimes

The owner of the new Cuppy’s franchise in Frankfort is at odds with the Franklin County Board of Health. The issue is the days the mobile unit isn’t moving and where it stays. Ricky Greer purchased the Coffee and Smoothie Franchise a few months ago. Shortly after that, he purchased a vacant lot at the corner of Mero and Lewis Streets. Greer told Action News 36, “I thought this would be a great location to be able to sit here…it just hasn’t worked out too well.” He planned to operate his stand at this location on days he wasn’t working at fairs and other special events elsewhere. The set up worked fine until another local restaurant complained Cuppy’s was violating state laws for mobile food units.

Kendra Palmer, Franklin County’s Environmental Health Director, said,”Even though he has a mobile food license he (Greer) can only operate at one fixed location for 14 days at a time.” After two weeks Palmer says the law states mobile food units, like Cuppy’s, can not return to the same location for 30 days. Greer believes the state law should be interpreted to apply to businesses operating at a location for 14 consecutive days, not for businesses like his which operate only 3 or 4 days and then move. In order to stay longer than two weeks on the property he owns, Greer would have to connect his mobile unit to the city’s water and sewer systems and add other permanent measures. These are steps Greer says are unnecessary and are not cost efficient for his business.

Greer is working with a lawyer who has contacted the State Attorney General to get his interpretation of the law. Until the matter is settled, Cuppy’s will continue serving its customers and moving a few feet every two weeks to be in compliance with the law.

Source:
http://www.wtvq.com/midatlantic/tvq/news.apx.-content-articles-TVQ-2007-05-23-0012.html