Changing your meal times might help you fight jet lag and shift work
One in five people in Western countries might be putting their health at risk by simply going to work, according to the Independent. Working shifts outside of the rest of the population’s normal hours could be linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and declined brain function.
Scientists believe that changes in people’s routines caused by shift work or travelling long distances can disrupt the circadian rhythms. New research suggests that this disruption might be kept under control by changing the times at which people eat. In humans and other mammals, there is a master clock within a region of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nuclei and lots of peripheral clocks found elsewhere. When delaying meals by a certain amount of time, a shift appeared in the case of some peripheral clocks, without affecting the master clock.
For the study, researchers looked at how shifting meal times affected the internal rhythms of 10 healthy male volunteers. The men were given three meals at the same time every day for five days and then delayed each meal time by five hours for the following six days. The five-hour delay in meal times caused an approximately five-hour delay in the rhythms of blood glucose.
loading...
Markers of the master clock didn’t change, but after the late meals, the way a particular clock gene released its instructions to the body in white fat tissue was delayed.
Previous advice for fighting jet lag and shift work provides that light exposure must be controlled to help adjust the master clock. However, changing meal times can help as well, both working together to reduce the de-synchronisation of the body’s clocks and health problems.
Loading...