A recent study has indicated that drinking two to three cups of coffee per day could help lower the risk of acute kidney injury.

The study, conducted by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers further revealed that drinking any amount of coffee reduces the risk of acute kidney injury, but drinking two to three cups is more beneficial, according to a report by Science daily.

The director of the Division of Nephrology and professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Chirag Parikh, who was part of the study said, “We already know that drinking coffee on a regular basis has been associated with the prevention of chronic and degenerative diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and liver disease.

“We can now add a possible reduction in acute kidney injury risk to the growing list of health benefits for caffeine,” he said.

According to the National Health Service in Great Britain, “Acute kidney injury is a type of kidney damage that is usually seen in older people who are unwell with other conditions and the kidneys are also affected.

“AKI is when your kidneys suddenly stop working properly. It can range from minor loss of kidney function to complete kidney failure and normally happens as a complication of another serious illness,” the NHS said.

The study which was published in the Kidney International reports consisted of 14,207 grown-ups between 1987 and 1989, ages 45 – 64, using data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities.

The participant’s coffee intakes were assessed by the researchers, at the first visit via food frequency questionnaires.

Overall, the team of researchers discovered that 27 per cent never drank coffee, 14 per cent drank less than a cup daily, 19 per cent drank only one cup of coffee per day, 23 per cent drank two to three cups daily and 17 per cent drank more than 3 cups of coffee in a day.

Coffee consumption was found to be highest in white participants, people without a diabetes diagnosis, men, smokers, and also individuals with normal blood pressure, lower body mass index, and people with a higher total energy intake daily were more probable to drink more coffee.

To define acute kidney injury, the researchers looked at rates of hospitalisation, throughout a median 24 years of the follow-up period. A total of 1694 acute kidney injury events were recorded for all study participants.

Parikh said, “We suspect that the reason for coffee’s impact on acute kidney injury risk may be that either biologically active compounds combined with caffeine or just the caffeine itself improve perfusion and oxygen utilization within the kidneys,”

“Good kidney function and tolerance to acute kidney injury is dependent on a steady blood supply and oxygen.”

According to the study findings, “Higher coffee intake was associated with a lower risk of acute kidney injury incident and could present an opportunity for cardiorenal protection through diet.

“Further evaluation of the physiological mechanisms underlying the cardiorenal protective effects of coffee consumption is necessary.”