Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have discovered a link between coffee drinking and a reduced risk of a rare liver disease. Primary sclerosing cholangitis, a disease of the bile ducts, can cause inflammation and consequent duct obstruction that eventually can result in cirrhosis of the liver, liver failure and biliary cancer.

According to Dr. Craig Lammert, instructor of medicine at Mayo Clinic, PSC has very damaging effects on the body. The study’s findings reveal a new environmental influence that not only controls risk, but might assist researchers with their quest to identify the cause of PCS and other autoimmune diseases.

The study looked at a large group of patients with PSC and primary biliary cirrhosis in the United States, as well as a healthy control group of participants. The study’s findings revealed that coffee drinking was linked to a reduced risk of PSC, but not PBC. The researchers also discovered that PSC patients were much more likely to never drink coffee when compared with the control group of healthy participants.

Other researchers presented at the Digestive Disease Week illustrated the need for improved palliative care for terminally ill cirrhotic patients who are rejected for a liver transplant. A study of patients previously examined or listed for liver transplant by the University of Alberta discovered that only three percent of patients in the study passed away while in hospice.

According to Constantine Karvellas, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Alberta, health care workers need to be better about guaranteeing the quality of life for these patients. Palliative care is specialized medical care for patients with serious illnesses. The goal of palliative care is to better the patients’ quality of life by focusing on alleviation from symptoms and pain.