And your mom said it would stunt your growth.

“Drinking coffee could help protect against alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver,” according to a press release published by Kaiser Permanente June 12.

Kaiser Permanente conducted a study of over 125,000 it its health plan members who received a medical examination between 1978-1985. They kept track of their alcohol, coffee and tea consumption through a questionnaire, and by the end of 2001, 330 people had developed liver disease and 199 had alcoholic cirrhosis.

Interestingly enough, the pattern of disease development shows that the more coffee a person drank, the less likely they were to develop alcoholic cirrhosis.

“Consuming coffee seems to have some protective benefits against alcoholic cirrhosis,” said Arthur Klatsky, MD, a Kaiser Permanente investigator, “and the more coffee a person consumes, the less risk they seem to have of being hospitalized or dying of alcoholic cirrhosis.”

The data shows that one cup of coffee per day made a subject 20 percent less likely to have alcoholic cirrhosis. Two to three cups: 40 percent less likely. Four or more cups of coffee a day indicated an 80 percent decrease in the risk of having alcoholic cirrhosis.

According to WebMD alcoholic cirrhosis is a life threatening disease that can develop in people who drink excessively over a 10-15 year period:

At least 10% to 15% of people who drink alcohol excessively will develop cirrhosis. Of the 26,000 people who die from cirrhosis each year, at least 40% have a history of alcohol abuse.

There are other types of cirrhosis, but the study did not show that coffee had any affect on non-alcoholic cirrhosis.

The press release is generating good play in the media. CNN.com ran an article about the findings. CBS News, ABC News and MSNBC are also running the story. Kaiser Permanente’s public relations team, including Kevin McCormack and Michelle Ponte, have also seen their efforts result in coverage in hundreds of newspapers today including papers in China, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and all over the United States.

“This is not a recommendation to drink coffee,” said Klatsky, “nor is it a recommendation that the way to deal with heavy alcohol consumption is to drink more coffee.”

You should buy a mug anyway.