Research shows that coffee in the morning can protect the heart better than drinking coffee all day

Research shows that people who drink coffee in the morning have a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a lower mortality risk than people who drink coffee all day. published in the European Heart Journal.

The research was led by Dr. Lu Qi, HCA Regents Distinguished Chair and Professor at the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, New Orleans, USA.

He said: “Research to date shows that drinking coffee does not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, but it does appear to reduce the risk of some chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Given the effects caffeine has on our bodies, we wanted to see if the time of day you drink coffee has any impact on heart health.”

The study involved 40,725 adults who participated in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2018.

As part of this study, participants were asked about all the food and drinks they consumed on at least one day, including whether they drank coffee, how much and when. It also included a subset of 1,463 people who were asked to complete a detailed food and drink diary for a full week.

Researchers were able to link this information to data on deaths and causes of death over a nine- to 10-year period.

About 36% of people in the study were morning coffee drinkers (they mainly drank coffee before noon), 16% of people drank coffee all day (morning, afternoon, and evening), and 48% were not coffee drinkers.

Compared to people who didn’t drink coffee, morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to die from any cause and 31% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease. However, there was no reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers compared to non-coffee drinkers.

Morning coffee drinkers benefited from the lower risks, whether they were moderate drinkers (two to three cups) or heavy drinkers (more than three cups). Light morning drinkers (one cup or less) benefited from a smaller reduction in risk.

Dr. Qi said: “This is the first study to test the timing of coffee drinking and health outcomes. Our findings indicate that it is not only whether you drink coffee or how much you drink, but also the time of day you drink coffee that is important. We generally no advice on timing in our nutritional guidance, but we may need to think about this in the future.

“This study does not tell us why drinking coffee in the morning reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. One possible explanation is that consuming coffee in the afternoon or evening can disrupt the circadian rhythm 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 people drink coffee.”

In an accompanying editorial, Professor Thomas F. Lüscher of Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, London, UK said: “In their study published in European Heart JournalCheek [and colleagues] analyzed the timing of coffee consumption in 40,725 adults from the NHANES and in 1,463 adults from the Women’s and Men’s Lifestyle Validation Study.

“During a median follow-up of almost ten years, and after adjusting for caffeine and decaffeinated coffee intake, the amounts of cups per day, sleep hours, and other confounding factors, more likely to favor the morning-type pattern than the all-day-type pattern, was significant. associated with lower risks of all-cause mortality, with a hazard ratio of 0.84, and of cardiovascular mortality as high as 0.69, compared to non-coffee drinkers.

“Why should time of day matter? In the morning hours there is usually a marked increase in sympathetic activity as we wake up and get out of bed, an effect that fades during the day and reaches its lowest level during sleep So, it is possible, as the authors indicate, that drinking coffee in the afternoon or evening disrupts the circadian rhythm of sympathetic activity.

“Many people who drink all day do indeed suffer from sleep disorders. In this context, it is interesting that coffee appears to suppress melatonin, an important sleep-inducing mediator in the brain.

“On the whole, we must accept the now substantial evidence that drinking coffee, especially in the morning hours, is probably healthy. So drink your coffee, but do it in the morning.”