Scientists from Johns Hopkins Medicine found that drinking coffee frequently may help reduce the risk of kidney injury.
Acute kidney injury, also known as acute renal failure, is a sudden episode of kidney failure or kidney damage that happens within a few hours or a few days.
AKI causes a build-up of waste products in your blood and makes it hard for your kidneys to keep the right balance of fluid in your body.
There are three major reasons why your kidneys might be injured: lack of blood flow to the kidneys, blockage in urine flow that causes infections, or direct kidney damage by infections, medications, toxins, or autoimmune conditions.
Coffee is one of the most popular beverages worldwide and has been found to have many health benefits.
Although frequent coffee drinking is linked to a lower risk of chronic kidney disease, the link between coffee and acute kidney injury is not clear.
In this study, researchers aimed to examine the association between coffee drinking and risk of the kidney problem.
They tested 14,207 people aged 45 to 64 years. Coffee drinking (cups/d) was assessed at a single visit via food frequency questionnaires.
The team also examined acute kidney injury incidence during a follow-up of 24 years.
They found that there were 1694 cases of acute kidney injury during the follow-up period. Drinking more coffee was linked to a lower risk of acute kidney injury compared with drinking no coffee.
The effect remained strong after the researchers controlled for other factors, such as diet, exercise, alcohol drinking, blood pressure, diabetes, and so on.
The team concludes that drinking more coffee was linked to a lower risk of acute kidney injury and may be a way to protect kidney health.
They suggest that future work needs to find out the mechanisms underlying the protective effects of coffee drinking.
The research is published in Kidney International Reports and was conducted by Chirag R. Parikh et al.
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