Eating At The Right Time May Reduce Adverse Effects Of Shift Work

Techtimes 27 April 2019
Knowing the right time of day to eat can help improve the health of people working on a shift or those suffering from jet lag.

In a study featured in the journal Cell, researchers from the Medical Research Council and The University of Manchester have identified how insulin signals the proper timing of meals in line with the body's circadian rhythm.

By understanding how the hormone works, scientists may be able to develop new ways to mitigate the effects of body clock disruptions on people's health. Some of these include eating at the right time or taking medicines designed to trigger insulin production.

"We already know that modern society poses many challenges to our health and wellbeing — things that are viewed as commonplace, such as shift-work, sleep deprivation, and jet lag, disrupt our body clock," said Dr. David Bechtold, senior lecturer at Manchester and one of the authors of the study.

"It is now becoming clear that circadian disruption is increasing the incidence and severity of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes."

The Body's Cellular Clocks

The circadian rhythm, commonly known as the body clock, refers to the cellular processes of the body that occur throughout a 24-hour cycle. It helps the body know when to sleep, what levels of hormones to set, and how it should respond to different medications.

The body is able to synchronize the circadian rhythm with its surroundings by exposing itself to daylight and eating at the right time. This is important to help keep the body healthy in the long run.

However, people who work on shifting schedules or those who travel across different time zones often experience a disruption of their circadian rhythm. They are also prone to eating at unusual times, which can severely affect their body clocks and damage their health.

Health Benefits of Time-Restricted Eating

Chronobiology 

Neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of Americans, especially those who are elderly or approaching old age. These diseases can cause rapid decline and loss of both one’s well-being and one’s ability to care for oneself. Although there are several treatments that can improve or extend the lives of people living with neurodegenerative disease, there currently are no cures. As a result, most treatments are focused on slowing disease progression and improving quality of life in the meantime. New studies have found that restricting eating times may be an effective way to improve quality of life for those who suffer from these diseases.

This is hardly the first study to find benefits for people and animals who restrict their eating times. People who have restricted eating times are less likely to be obese, to have diabetes and other metabolic issues, and to develop cardiovascular disease. Although time-restricted eating has been shown to reduce caloric intake, these benefits have been shown to occur when test subjects eat the same number of calories overall.

How can timing matter so much? There appear to be several factors. First, eating affects the circadian rhythm, serving as a cue to the time of day. When people eat late in the evening or at night, it can cause delays in melatonin release and other biochemical changes that are not conducive to a good night of sleep. Second, eating can cause direct metabolic changes which, while necessary to digest and metabolize food, are not positive for long periods of time. When we eat, liver cells stop basic repair and maintenance activities, to instead, focus on storing fat and producing glucose. High glucose over long periods of time can lead to diabetes and metabolic disease, while excessive fat storage can obviously lead to weight gain.

Giving your child a smartphone is like “giving them a gram of cocaine”, a top addiction therapist has warned.

Independent June, 2017

Giving your child a smartphone is like “giving them a gram of cocaine”, a top addiction therapist has warned.

Time spent messaging friends on Snapchat and Instagram can be just as dangerously addictive for teenagers as drugs and alcohol, and should be treated as such, school leaders and teachers were told at an education conference in London.

Speaking alongside experts in technology addiction and adolescent development, Harley Street rehab clinic specialist Mandy Saligari said screen time was too often overlooked as a potential vehicle for addiction in young people.

“I always say to people, when you’re giving your kid a tablet or a phone, you’re really giving them a bottle of wine or a gram of coke,” she said. 

“Are you really going to leave them to knock the whole thing out on their own behind closed doors? 

“Why do we pay so much less attention to those things than we do to drugs and alcohol when they work on the same brain impulses?”

Her comments follow news that children as young as 13 are being treated for digital technology – with a third of British children aged 12-15 admitting they do not have a good balance between screen time and other activities.