Your first cup of morning coffee may be doing a lot more for you than helping you wake up and face the day.
For my part, I make it a habit not to drink coffee after around noon, so the lingering effects of caffeine won’t keep me from sleeping that night.
So I was excited to learn that my devotion to this morning habit could be a big part of why coffee’s reputation for better health and longer life keeps growing…
The health benefits of coffee
Coffee’s reputation as a health drink has been growing for decades. But just in the last couple of years, a “grande” amount has helped solidify the previous research, showing a definite association between coffee consumption and lower mortality and disease risk.
Here’s just a little of all that research:
- In 2010, scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health and the American Cancer Society identified a connection between caffeine consumption and a lowered risk of Parkinson’s disease.
- A 2015 study included coffee on a short list of foods that are protective against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
- Much earlier than that, in 2005 and 2007, studies supported the role of coffee consumption in preventing liver cancer.
- And in the last five years or so, coffee has been found to encourage bone growth and block bone loss, lower stroke risk and help weight loss.
Now researchers add a caveat about coffee’s benefits: “when” you drink your coffee matters…
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Study shows morning coffee is best
“We found that coffee drinking timing was associated with all-cause mortality risk and [cardiovascular disease]-specific mortality risk independent of the amounts of coffee intake,” concluded Lu Qi, MD, PhD, epidemiologist of Tulane University in New Orleans and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and his team.
“Our findings highlight the importance of considering drinking timing in the association between the amounts of coffee intake and health outcomes.”
The study included 40,725 adult subjects from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) of 1999 through 2018.
The scientists from Tulane University, Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital believe that there are two possible mechanisms behind their findings…
One is the disruption to the circadian rhythm caused by all-day caffeine consumption. This not only interferes with the natural sleep/wake cycle but other important functions regulated by the sympathetic nervous system, including but not limited to blood pressure.
For example, if you drink coffee in the late afternoon, your circadian rhythm may be directing your blood pressure to rise, when normally it should be falling in the pre-bedtime hours.
The second is that there may be substances in coffee that can counteract the body’s pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are typically at their highest levels in the morning.
Inflammation’s link to disease has been well documented over the years. The less of it, the better off you are.
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The bottom line before your mug bottoms up
If you’re a coffee fiend, like I am, try and enjoy that cup of joe before noon.
Most people’s cortisol levels peak between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., then take a bit of a dip. Maybe that’s why, if I drink a second cup, it feels best when I do it around 10 a.m. I’m able to return to my desk and push on to finish work by noon.
Everyone is different, so you’ll want to see what works and feels best for you. But try and be done with coffee before lunchtime. Not only will you sleep better, but you’ll be doing your overall health a favor while lowering your risks of cardiovascular-related death.
Sources:
Coffee drinking tied to better survival but timing matters — MedPage Today
Coffee drinking timing and mortality in U.S. adults — European Heart Journal