A resent study found
that men who drank two to three cups a day had a 40 percent lower risk of gallstones than
those who did not drink regular coffee. Men who drank four or more cups a day had a 45 percent lower risk, the research showed.Only
coffee with caffeine stimulates contractions in the gallbladder and lowers cholesterol in
bile that can form painful gallstones, decaffeinated coffee does not.
Exactly why coffee has this effect is unclear. Caffeinated tea and soda don’t have
the same effect, the researchers reported in Wednesday’s Journal of the American
Medical Association.
“I wouldn’t actually say we would recommend that people take up
coffee just to prevent gallstones,” said Dr. Michael F. Leitzmann of the Harvard
University School of Public Health. “But it’s OK to continue drinking it.
Coffee doesn’t cause any other major diseases.”
Gallstones are painful deposits of cholesterol in the gallbladder, the organ under the
liver that stores bile. They affect about 20 million Americans and cause 800,000
hospitalizations each year.
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