With new evidence pointing to the fact that people who eat dinner at about 7pm in the evenings may live longer, I wrote a feature for the health pages of The Daily Mirror and Daily Express on the best – and the worst – times to do certain things when it comes to your wellbeing.
It took a lot of research – and there were some fascinating findings!
For example – going back to the research on dinner – the best time to take your evening meal is actually 7.13pm. Leave it til much later and you’re more at risk of cardiovascular disease like stroke or heart failure.
And that vitamin D supplement? Be sure to take it with a meal. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. That means it’s best absorbed into the body when taken with a high-fat food (like full-fat yogurt, nuts, an avocado or eggs). Taking it without any fat will mean it’s simply not absorbed into your body as well.
There’s also an ideal time to take cholesterol-lowering statin medication. It depends on the type of statin, though. Short-acting statins have a half-life of less than six hours – that’s the amount of time it takes for half of the dose to leave your body. A review of studies found that short-acting statins like these are more effective at lowering LDL cholesterol when taken in the evening. That’s because cholesterol-producing enzymes are more active at night. Long-acting statins take more time to be processed by the body and work well whether taken in the morning or evening. Ask you doctor if you don’t know whether you’re on the short- or long-acting type.
There’s also an ideal time to take a nap. Between the hours of 1 and 3 p.m we experience a small dip in core body temperature which acts as a signal to the brain to release melatonin, the sleep hormone. To work with this natural dip in your circadian rhythm, the ideal nap time might be around 2 p.m.