Morning physical activity is associated with the lowest risk of heart disease and stroke, according to a study in more than 85,000 individuals. The study used data from the UK Biobank. It included 86,657 adults aged 42 to 78 years who were free of cardiovascular disease at baseline. The average age was 62 years and 58% were women. Participants wore an activity tracker on their wrist for seven consecutive days. Participants were followed for incident cardiovascular disease, which was defined as the first hospital admission or death related to coronary artery disease or stroke. During six to eight years of follow up, 2,911 participants developed coronary artery disease and 796 had a stroke. Comparing peak activity times across a 24 hour period, being most active between 8 am and 11 am was linked with the lowest risks of both heart disease and stroke. The findings were consistent regardless of the total amount of daily activity, and whether participants described themselves as a morning person or an evening person. When the results were analysed separately according to sex, the investigators found that the results were particularly prominent in women but no longer significant in men. Women who were most active in the early morning or late morning had 22% and 24% lower risks of incident coronary artery disease, respectively, compared to the reference group. In addition, women who were most active in the late morning had a 35% decreased risk of incident stroke compared with the reference group. The paper is published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. You can access it https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwac239.