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OAKLAND, CA - The Wall Street Journal reported coffee may protect against alcoholic liver disease, says a study adding literature on the diverse health effects of the popular, addictive brew.  For every cup of java, up to four a day, the study charted about a 20% decline in alcoholic cirrhosis risk.  Four cups a day had about an 80% lower risk.  Although the study suggests coffee may be protective, it doesn't prove drinking it caused the benefit.  Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program researchers reviewed the medical and death records of 125,580 health plan members through 2001.  The data, extending a 1992 report, were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.  Caffeine isn't believed to be the top player, said Kaiser researcher and lead author Arthur Klatsky, because tea drinking produced no lower risk.  The study didn't distinguish between regular and decaffeinated coffee.  Coffee is a complex brew of more than 1,000 chemicals, noted a recent Oregon State University review.  In countless conflicting and controversial studies, coffee has been linked to an array of positive health outcomes, including lower risks of type 2 diabetes, suicide, and liver cancer in some people.  Studies have mixed conclusions about a possible link to lower risk of colorectal cancer and Parkinson's disease, Oregon scientists noted.  Coffee raises blood pressure in inexperienced drinkers, Dr. Klatsky said, but not in veteran coffee drinkers.  On the negative side, Dr. Klatsky said some studies have found a slightly higher risk of heart attack, possibly linked to rises in cholesterol observed when people drink boiled coffee, but not the filtered kind.