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Topics: Food and Drink, Health, Science, Sleep, Coffee
Callum Jones
Topics: Food and Drink, Health, Science, Sleep, Coffee
A new study has found that drinking coffee at a certain time of day could reduce your risk of heart disease and even death.
Especially after a poor night's sleep, many will head straight to the coffee for a 'pick-me-up' during the work day.
For some, the caffeine boost is needed to get through the day - but when is the best time to stick the kettle on and make a coffee?
Well, a new study has found that starting your day with a cup of coffee could provided more health benefits as opposed to getting the Cappuccino on ice during the day.
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Ultimately, researchers found that those who drink coffee in the morning have a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, while also reducing their risk of death.
The research was led by Professor Dr. Lu Qi, of Tulane University in Louisiana, who said: "Research so far suggests that drinking coffee doesn’t raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, and it seems to lower the risk of some chronic diseases, such as diabetes.
"Given the effects that caffeine has on our bodies, we wanted to see if the time of day when you drink coffee has any impact on heart health."
More than 40,000 people were involved with the study over the period of a decade, with 36 percent of the participants being morning coffee drinkers.
Meanwhile, 14 percent of participants were dubbed as 'all-day coffee drinkers'.
4,295 people involved with the study died during the period researchers were collecting data, with the experts ultimately concluding those who drink coffee in the morning were 16 percent less likely to have died compared to non-coffee consumers.
On top of that, morning coffee drinkers were 31 percent less likely to have died from heart disease.
Qi said: "This is the first study testing coffee drinking timing patterns and health outcomes. 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."
The researcher added: "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."