I'll take a coffee chaser

In an otherwise miserable day, some good news.

Drinking coffee may protect against the type of liver disease caused by excessive alcohol intake, researchers have found.

In a population of more than 125,000 members of a prepaid health care plan, scientists found 199 with diagnoses of liver cirrhosis caused by alcohol abuse. The subjects were examined beginning in 1978, and they were followed for an average of more than 14 years. Their coffee drinking and other dietary and health habits were established using interviews and questionnaires.

Compared with people who never drank coffee, those who drank one cup a day or less were about 30 percent less likely to develop alcoholic cirrhosis. The more coffee they drank, the lower the risk. At one to three cups per day, the risk was lowered by 40 percent, and those who drank more than four cups a day reduced their risk by 80 percent. Coffee had no statistically significant effect on the risk for nonalcoholic cirrhosis.

Until the Starbucks Institute for Managed Alcoholism completes their study on the effect of Mocha Skim Lattes, I'm sticking with Joe, black-no-sugar.