Bryan Johnson breaks down a 40,000-person study showing morning coffee drinkers have 16% lower mortality and 31% lower cardiovascular death risk than non-drinkers. Caffeine's 5-6 hour half-life means afternoon cups disrupt sleep, the most important health behavior. Drink it early, skip the sugar.
Coffee drinkers live longer. But there's a catch. A recent study tracked the coffee consumption of over 40,000 US adults for a 10 year period. What it found is that morning only coffee drinkers had a 16% lower risk of death and a 31% lower risk of cardiovascular death compared to non coffee drinkers. But here's the catch. It matters when you drink the coffee. In fact, if you're drinking coffee in the afternoon to keep yourself awake, you may be losing out on the longevity benefits. Caffeine has a five to six hour half life in your body. That means a cup of coffee at 3pm leaves half a cup of coffee in your body at 9pm that lingering caffeine in your system can wreck your sleep. And if I haven't said this enough, sleep is the number one thing you can do for your overall health. So when coffee is not interrupting your sleep, this is how it may support longevity. It can boost your metabolic rate and improve vascular function and blood flow. It can also provide anti inflammatory and neuroprotective benefits and induce autophagy, which is your body's natural, natural cellular cleanup process. This is due to caffeine and its polyphenols. So if you want the potential longevity benefits of coffee, focus on the earlier parts of the day, avoid the late afternoons and also skip the sugar pumps, things that are otherwise going to negate the benefits. When you do caffeine right, it may also double as a longevity therapy.
