Best Time to Drink Coffee to Reduce Heart Death Risk Revealed

If you're a frequent coffee drinker and are worried about any adverse effects on your heart, you might want to think about what time of day you pour up a cup. 

A new study published Jan. 8 in the European Heart Journal found that people who drank coffee exclusively in the morning had a lower risk of dying of any cause, including cardiovascular disease, when compared to all-day coffee drinkers and non-coffee drinkers. 

Researchers examined the health information of 40,725 adults participating in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Suvery (NHANES) between 1999 and 2018. These people reported their diet habits among other metrics, including if they drank coffee and how much and when. Of this cohort, a group of 1,463 people were asked to keep a detailed food and drink diary for a full week. 

Thirty-six percent of people in the study were morning coffee drinks who primarily drank coffee before noon. Sixteen percent drank coffee throughout the morning, afternoon, and evening, while 48 percent did not drink coffee at all. In the end, after examining death records and causes of death, scientists found that morning coffee drinkers were 16 percent less likely to die of any cause and 31 percent less likely to die of cardiovascular disease when compared to non-coffee drinkers. All-day coffee drinkers, meanwhile, had no reduction in risk compared to non-drinkers.  

Related: Coffee's Heart Health Benefits

How much coffee you drink in the morning also seemingly produced different results. They reaped the lower risk benefits when they were moderate or heavy coffee drinkers, meaning two or more cups in the morning. Light morning coffee drinkers who consume one cup or less experienced a smaller decrease in risk. 

The study, lead researcher Dr. Lu Qi said in a statement, is the first of its kind. 

"This is the first study testing coffee drinking timing patterns and health outcomes," he 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."

Related: Life-Affirming New Study Says Coffee Is Good For Your Heart

Qi went on to note that the study doesn't determine exactly why coffee timing might affect health outcomes later in life, though he has an idea. 

"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," he said. "Further 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 when people drink coffee."

Given the growing scientific literature around the purported benefits of drinking coffee, it might be worth considering integrating into your routine if you don't partake.