Beer me. Coffee me.

A new study by the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Oakland, California, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association's Archives of Internal Medicine, suggests that coffee consumption may help prevent cirrhosis of the liver.

In essence, the study suggests that by drinking coffee, people may be able to counteract the effects of long–term and heavy alcohol abuse, which can destroy healthy liver tissue. However, there are some caveats to the study.

For example, the study concedes that there could be other substances or genetics that helped the subjects of the study avoid liver disease. And the physicians involved said that they would no go so far as to recommend coffee as a treatment for cirrhosis.