Morning coffee drinkers ‘less likely to die early’ compared to all-day coffee drinkers, study shows
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Drinking coffee in the morning could bring more health benefits than drinking cups throughout the day, a new study suggests. A decade-long study tracking 40,000 people in the US tried to assess whether the time of day people drink coffee has any impact on their health. After taking into account various other health and lifestyle factors researchers found that morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to have died compared with those who drank no coffee, and they were 31% less likely to have died from heart disease.
There was no reduction in risk for all-day coffee drinkers compared with those who did not drink any coffee. Lead author Dr Lu Qi, from Tulane University in Louisiana, said: "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.".
