Coffee is known to have several benefits for the body. Now there is one more benefit of coffee that could help treat hepatitis C patients with advanced chronic liver disease.

Based on the new study , patients that receiving peginterferon plus ribavirin treatment and consume 3 cups of coffee a day had two times higher likelihood of responding to the treatment than patients who did not drink coffee.

“Coffee intake has been associated with low levels liver enzyme , reducing the progression of chronic liver disease and reduce the incidence of liver cancer,” said Neal Freedman from the National Cancer Institute, as quoted from Indiavision.

Even so the relationship between response to anti-HCV treatment with coffee consumption has not been fully understood by researchers. This study itself has been reported in the journal Gastroenterology.

Known to about 75 percent of people infected with hepatitis C have no symptoms when first diagnosed, and the remaining 25 percent complained of fatigue, loss of appetite, muscle aches or fever. While the condition of the skin and yellowing of the eyes that rarely occur in the early stages of infection.

Usually the initial diagnosis of hepatitis C is found through blood tests that showed an increase in liver enzyme levels, signs of liver damage which became the first hint the possibility of infection.

Worldwide is estimated there are about 130-170 million people affected by hepatitis C, and about 70-80 percent become chronically infected. When the infection has started experiencing the effects of chronic persistent inflammation caused by immune reactions against the virus.

Hepatitis C  is a virus that is genetically very varied and has a high mutation rate, thus enabling the generation of diverse viruses. Consequently there has been no successful vaccines designed to prevent infection with hepatitis C virus

People suffering from Hepatitis C have no symptoms, although infection has occurred for many years. The symptoms are not felt by the sufferer such as:

  • Tired
  • Loss of appetite
  • Stomach ache
  • Urine becomes dark
  • Yellow skin or eyes

Infection with hepatitis C virus  is also called the covert (silent infection) due to early infection is often asymptomatic or there is no typical symptoms that are often overlooked.

The virus has become one of the causes of chronic liver disease such as cirrhosis and liver cancer is a common cause of liver transplantation. Cirrhosis occurs in 10-20 percent of patients with chronic hepatitis C and liver cancer occur in 1-5 percent of patients with chronic hepatitis C within 20-30 years. And about 80 percent of people newly infected with the disease will continue to develop into chronic infection.

Hepatitis C virus is transmitted through the main street of blood infection from blood transfusions or blood products that have not been screened (examination), exchange of syringes by injecting drug users (injecting drug users / IDUs) as well as needles or tattoo equipment