When you drink coffee could make all the difference for your heart health
There are few things in this world more refreshing than a freshly-brewed cup of hot coffee in the morning. And, according to new research, those who enjoy a cup in the morning may have an extra reason to feel better about themselves.
A study led by experts from Tulane University in the US suggests that sipping coffee in the morning may offer greater health benefits than consuming it throughout the day. Researchers wanted to assess whether the time of day people drink coffee has any impact on their health.
The study analysed data from over 40,000 adults in the US, drawn from long-term research on health, nutrition, and lifestyle. Among the participants were those who drank coffee only in the morning (36% of participants) and those who drank it all day (14%).
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After following the lives of the participants for a decade, the researchers observed that during the follow-up period some 4,295 people taking part in the study died. Findings revealed that morning coffee drinkers had a 16 per cent lower risk of death compared to non-coffee drinkers.
Even more strikingly, they had a 31 per cent lower risk of dying from heart disease. However, there was no reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers compared with those who did not drink any coffee.
The researchers concluded that higher coffee consumption was linked to a reduced risk of death, but only for those who drank it in the morning.
“Drinking coffee in the morning may be more strongly associated with a lower risk of mortality than drinking coffee later in the day,” they wrote in the European Heart Journal.
Lead author Dr Lu Qi, from Tulane University in Louisiana, said: “Research so far suggests that drinking coffee doesn’t raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, and it seems to lower the risk of some chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes.
“Given the effects that caffeine has on our bodies, we wanted to see if the time of day when you drink coffee has any impact on heart health.” He added: “This is the first study testing coffee drinking timing patterns and health outcomes.
“Our findings indicate that it’s not just whether you drink coffee or how much you drink, but the time of day when you drink coffee that’s important. We don’t typically give advice about timing in our dietary guidance, but perhaps we should be thinking about this in the future.
“This study doesn’t tell us why drinking coffee in the morning reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. A possible explanation is that consuming coffee in the afternoon or evening may disrupt circadian rhythms and levels of hormones such as melatonin. This, in turn, leads to changes in cardiovascular risk factors such as inflammation and blood pressure.
“Further studies are needed to validate our findings in other populations, and we need clinical trials to test the potential impact of changing the time of day when people drink coffee.”
In a linked editorial, Professor Thomas Luuscher, from the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals in London, said “many all-day drinkers suffer from sleep disturbances”.
He wrote: “Overall, we must accept the now substantial evidence that coffee drinking, particularly in the morning hours, is likely to be healthy. Thus, drink your coffee, but do so in the morning!”
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