A morning cup of tea or coffee is considered vital by many, but now researchers say it may provide more benefits than just being able to face the day.

Collaborative research between teams in Singapore and the United States has suggested that caffeine intake may help improve liver health for diabetics and others with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Around the world, seventy per cent of people suffering from diabetes or obesity are also diagnosed with NAFLD. Thirty per cent of people in the US have NAFLD and cases are rising in Singapore too. Until recently the only treatment has been diet and exercise, now the Duke University teams have used cell cultures and mouse models to plot the relationship between caffeine and liver metabolism.

The study was undertaken by teams under the charge of Paul Yen, M.D., associate professor and research fellow, and Rohit Sinha, Ph.D of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School's Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders Program in Singapore. They observed caffeine stimulating the metabolisation of lipids stored in liver cells. This decreased the fatty liver of mice that were fed a high-fat diet. The findings suggest consuming the equivalent caffeine amount found in around 4 cups of coffee a day may be beneficial in protecting against the progression of NAFLD. The findings are due to be published in the upcoming issue of the ‘Hepatology’ journal.

“This is the first detailed study of the mechanism for caffeine action on lipids in liver and the results are very interesting,” Yen said, “Coffee and tea are so commonly consumed and the notion that they may be therapeutic, especially since they have a reputation for being 'bad' for health, is especially enlightening.”

The team believes it is evidence enough to begin working on caffeine-related treatments for liver conditions. The scientists are now working on ways to deliver the drug without the normal negative side-effects of high coffee consumption.

A preview of the research paper is available online.