Drinking coffee in the morning is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and overall mortality compared to all-day coffee drinking, according to a comprehensive study published in the European Journal of the Heart.
The research, which tracked the coffee drinking habits and health outcomes of more than 40,000 adults, suggests that the timing of coffee consumption may play a critical role in its health benefits.
People who drink coffee in the morning are less likely to die from cardiovascular disease and have a lower overall risk of death than those who drink coffee throughout the day, according to a study published Jan. 8 in the journal . European Journal of the Heart.(1)
The research, led by Dr. Lu Qi, professor and HCA Regents Distinguished Chair at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, explored the potential link between the timing of coffee consumption and heart health. Dr Qi explained: “Research so far suggests that coffee consumption does not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and appears to reduce the risk of some chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. Given the effects of caffeine on our bodies, we wanted to see if the time of day you drink coffee had an impact on heart health.
The study included 40,725 adults participating in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2018. In the study, participants were asked about all the foods and drinks they ate. they consumed at least one day, including whether they drank coffee, how much and when. The study also included a subgroup of 1,463 people who were asked to complete a detailed food and drink diary for a full week.
The researchers were able to link this information to records of deaths and causes of death over a period of nine to ten years.
About 36% of people in the study drank coffee in the morning (they mostly drank coffee before noon), 16% of people drank coffee throughout the day (morning, afternoon and evening), and 48% of people drank coffee throughout the day (morning, afternoon and evening) 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 lower risks, whether they were moderate drinkers (two to three cups) or heavy drinkers (more than three cups). Light drinkers in the morning (one cup or less) benefited from a smaller reduction in risk.
Dr Qi said: “This is the first study testing coffee drinking habits and health outcomes. Our results indicate that it’s not just whether or how much you drink coffee, but also the time of day you drink coffee that is important. We don’t usually give advice on timing in our dietary recommendations, but perhaps we should think about it 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 drinking coffee in the afternoon or evening could 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.
“Additional 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 people drink coffee.”
In an accompanying editorial(2) Professor Thomas F. Lüscher of the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals in London, UK, said: “In their study published in this issue of the European Heart Journal, Wang and others analyzed the time of day when coffee was consumed among 40,725 adults from NHANES and 1,463 adults from the Women’s and Men’s Lifestyle Validation Study.
“Over a median follow-up of nearly a decade, and after adjusting for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee consumption, quantities of cups per day, hours of sleep, and other confounding factors, morning type rather than the whole day type model, was significantly associated with lower risks of all-cause mortality with a relative risk of 0.84 and cardiovascular mortality even of 0.69 compared to non-coffee drinkers.
“Why would the time of day matter?” In the morning, there is usually a marked increase in sympathetic activity when we wake up and get out of bed, an effect that fades over the course of the day and reaches its lowest level during sleep. Thus, it is possible, as the authors point out, that drinking coffee in the afternoon or evening disrupts the circadian rhythm of sympathetic activity. Indeed, many daily drinkers suffer from sleep problems. In this context, it is interesting to note that coffee appears to suppress melatonin, an important sleep-inducing brain mediator.
“Overall, we must accept the now substantial evidence that coffee consumption, particularly in the morning, is likely to be healthy. So drink your coffee, but do it in the morning!
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