Why timing your coffee matters for your heart health

Drinking coffee in the morning may be more strongly associated with a lower risk of mortality. Photo / 123rf

New study is the first to look at impact of time of consumption on health outcomes.

Drinking coffee could cut the risk of heart death by one-third – but only if you drink it in the morning, a study suggests.

Research on over 40,000 adults who were tracked for more than a decade found that those who started the day with a cup fared far better than those who drank no coffee.

The study is the first to look at the impact of the time coffee is consumed on health outcomes. Previous research has had mixed findings about the impact of coffee on heart disease.

Some studies have suggested that moderate consumption may cut the risk, while high consumption may increase it.

Coffee drinking has also been linked to reduced risk of some other diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes.

The new study from Tulane University in Louisiana was observational, with the research team tracking people for almost a decade. During the follow-up period, 4295 people taking part in the study died.

Research so far suggests that drinking coffee doesn’t raise the risk of cardiovascular disease. Photo / 123rf

Lower risk of mortality

Researchers said higher coffee intake amounts were “significantly” associated with a lower risk of death, but only among people who drank coffee in the morning compared with those who drank coffee all day.

“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.

The study found that morning coffee drinkers were 31% less likely to have died from heart disease, compared with those who drank no coffee. They also had a 16% lower risk of death from any cause.

But there was no reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers compared with those who did not drink any coffee.

Dr Lu Qi, the lead author from Tulane University, 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.”

Consuming coffee in the afternoon or evening may disrupt circadian rhythms and levels of hormones. Photo / 123rf

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.”

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.”