New research suggests that drinking coffee in the morning may reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. The study found that people who consumed coffee in the morning had a lower mortality risk compared to those who drank coffee throughout the day. However, it could not definitively prove that coffee was the direct cause of the reduced risk. Dr. Lu Qi, the lead researcher and director of the Tulane University Obesity Research Center, proposed that consuming coffee later in the day could disrupt a person’s internal body clock, which may explain the difference. The study was published in the European Heart Journal on Wednesday.
Dr. Qi emphasized that further research is needed to confirm if these findings apply to other populations and that clinical trials should test whether changing the time of day people drink coffee can have a significant impact. One possible explanation for the findings is that drinking coffee later in the day might interfere with circadian rhythms, which can affect hormones like melatonin, potentially leading to increased cardiovascular risks, such as higher inflammation and blood pressure.
Researchers from Tulane University analyzed data from 40,725 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2018. Participants provided information about their daily food and drink intake, including coffee consumption, and the time of day they drank it.
The study found that 36% of participants drank coffee in the morning, while 14% consumed coffee throughout the day. Over the course of nearly a decade, 4,295 participants died, including 1,268 from cardiovascular disease. The results showed that morning coffee drinkers had a 16% lower risk of death and a 31% lower risk of dying from heart disease compared to non-coffee drinkers. However, all-day coffee drinkers did not experience any reduction in mortality risk.
The research indicated that consuming higher amounts of coffee was linked to a lower risk of death, but only for those who drank coffee in the morning. The researchers concluded that morning coffee consumption was more strongly associated with lower mortality risk than drinking coffee throughout the day.
In an editorial accompanying the study, Prof. Thomas F. Luscher from Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals in London explained that morning coffee consumption may align better with the body’s natural rhythms. He noted that drinking coffee later in the day could disrupt the internal clock, which might affect sleep patterns and overall health. Many all-day coffee drinkers experience sleep disturbances, and coffee’s ability to suppress melatonin, a key sleep-inducing hormone, could play a role.
The study also suggested that morning coffee drinkers were more likely to consume other caffeinated beverages, such as tea and soda, while drinking less coffee overall compared to those who drank coffee throughout the day.
