America News Agency

An analysis of coffee consumption among more than 40,000 adults revealed that morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to die from any cause and 31% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease over a 10-year follow-up period compared to non-coffee drinkers.

However, researchers found that the heart health benefits were absent in people who drank coffee throughout the day, as medical records showed no significant reduction in mortality rates among them compared to coffee avoiders.

Professor Lu Qi, a nutrition and epidemiology expert at Tulane University in New Orleans, said, “What matters is not just whether you drink coffee and how much you drink, but also when you drink it during the day. Our dietary guidelines typically don’t include recommendations about timing, but maybe we should consider this in the future.”

The study drew on data from the dietary habits of 40,725 adults who participated in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2018, including the amount of coffee they consumed and when they drank it. About 36% drank coffee in the morning, while 16% drank coffee later in the day.

According to the study, morning coffee drinkers, whether they were moderate drinkers (two to three cups a day) or heavy drinkers (more than three cups), had lower mortality risks. Those who drank just one cup in the morning had fewer health benefits. The risks were assessed based on participants’ medical records over 9 to 10 years following the start of the study.

The findings, published in the European Heart Journal, were confirmed in a smaller group of 1,463 individuals who filled out detailed food and drink diaries for one week.

The study suggests that morning coffee is better for the heart compared to evening coffee but does not explain why. One possible explanation is that drinking coffee later in the day might disrupt circadian rhythms and hormone levels such as melatonin. This could affect sleep, inflammation, and blood pressure, harming heart health.

Professor Thomas Lüscher, a consultant cardiologist at London’s Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, noted in an accompanying editorial that many all-day coffee drinkers sleep less and added that coffee suppresses melatonin, a key hormone for sleep.

The effects are largely attributed to caffeine, but coffee contains hundreds of other bioactive compounds that influence our physiology. Researchers noted that some inflammatory substances in the blood peak in the morning and might be balanced by the anti-inflammatory compounds in morning coffee. “This explanation applies to both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee,” they wrote.