Modern sleeping habits may cause obesity and changes in behavior and brain activity
Many of us have heard the term "biological clock" or circadian rhythm (circa - circle, diani - day). The biological clock is set to about 24 hours, 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness, but it can be regulated by changing light and dark periods. For example, many have experienced the experience of flying (jet lag) caused by a trip abroad which involves moving to another time zone and affects the time and quality of sleep, leads to a feeling of fatigue, loss of appetite and other symptoms. Within a few days the body gets used to the new time, there is a regulation of the biological clock and then... the vacation ends, of course, and we again experience the experience of flying when we return home.
The biological clock is set in a certain area of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (Suprachiasmatic Nucleus) and is located in the hypothalamus area. The names themselves are not important, but it is important to know that this area, which is the central clock in the brain, receives information about periods of light and darkness directly from the retina of the eye, from the neurons sensitive to light and darkness found in it. The regulation of the central clock according to light-dark periods is mediated by genes whose activation causes the creation of certain proteins. There are also additional clocks in the body and they are regulated by the central clock.
With the development of civilization and the changes that have occurred in our way of life, we often find ourselves in unnatural light-dark regimes. Most of us stay up late at night under lighting conditions, the people working night shifts are exposed to light throughout the night, nurses and doctors work continuous hours in the light, industrial workers working three shifts are in different light-dark periods, pilots move from one time zone to another with high frequency and more. The people who belong to these groups are characterized by a "confused" biological clock and the changes that occur in their bodies and the dangers they are exposed to are not known in detail. For example, night shift workers are found to have an increase in the number of diabetes patients and an increase in the risk of heart disease.
In January 2011, the Journal of the American National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published an article on the effects of disturbances in the biological clock resulting from changes in the light-dark regime. The mechanisms that determine the biological clock are similar in different mammals, so it is also possible to learn about them from animal research.
The study was done in two groups of normal mice. One group remained on a regime of 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness (the control group), while the day of another group was divided into 10 hours of light and 10 hours of darkness (the experimental group). This is a relatively small difference in hours, yet considerable changes were caused, including changes in body temperature and weight.
We know that body temperature changes cyclically during the day and rises towards the evening. In the experimental group, the mice were unable to regulate their body temperature well. Also, the experimental animals gained more weight than the control animals even though they ate the same amount of food. This finding shows a decrease in metabolism. The increase in body weight was evident only after about five weeks and the rate of weight gain increased after 10 weeks. An increase in the amount of the hormones insulin and leptin in the blood was also measured. The increase in the amount of insulin, despite a normal glucose concentration, shows the development of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is one of the main factors in the development of type 2 diabetes. Is this one of the reasons why we find an increase in the number of type 2 diabetes patients in the population?
One of the most important findings is a change in the structure of nerve cell extensions in the cerebral cortex area responsible for cognitive activity. In the experimental animals the nerve cell extensions became shorter and indeed in these animals the ability to learn changes in the environment was less compared to the control group.
Does this research have implications for humans? A study done on nurses who worked long night shifts showed that they gained weight, and similar findings were observed for shift workers in Japan. The findings described here indicate that it is important to study the effects of disturbances in the circadian regime in humans, especially in view of the changes in the modern lifestyle, and this is doubly true for young people who live for long periods without a natural light-dark regime.
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And more on the subject
Disruption of circadian clocks has ramifications for metabolism, brain, and behavior. PNAS (2011) 108: 1657-1662
About the author
Yitzhak Ferns is a professor in the Department of Neurobiology of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the founder of the Israeli Association for Neuroscience and the founder of Belmonte Youth Labs in Jerusalem.
14 תגובות
Avi,
No site offers membership as far as I know and maintaining exclusive loyalty to this or that site is not my way. Knowledge and information are found in many places, from which my truth is formed according to the filter of my logic and experience.
And speaking of this - your position above is reminiscent of the position of the American Ministry of Health in the XNUMXs regarding the harms of cigarette smoking... Would you like to bring some scientific studies that confirm the benefits of the said acid for dental health and general health?
In any case, as long as you don't censor opinions that differ from yours, the right to exist must be found and you of course have the right to hold your opinion up to 120 and more... (We, on the other hand, have been putting our trust in a reverse osmosis filter for many years and dental treatments are not a common thing in our districts).
The other self and Emanuel, strengthening between two friends from another truth does not make any impression on the supporters of science, there is no truth in the story with the fluoride except the concern for the health of the teeth of all of us. Stop seeing an enemy in everyone in the country.
Emanuel,
A waste of your energy.
The subject of fluorosilicic acid and its harm to health is very outrageous and backed by a great deal of indisputable scientific information and research (except by the hands of the politicians in the Ministry of Health of course). But no one on the site here will bother to check the matter and publish an objective article because it plays into the hands of the rival site.
The science website could have been a real leader, but the Jewish wars simply make us all lose. Instead of an objective article on the subject that will settle the matter once and for all, we get ignored and scolded.
I am appalled that the editor of the science website waves aside such an important issue as drinking water
Every woman and child in the State of Israel is affected by him.
The damage is not hypothetical.
Prof. Hardy Laimback Head of the Preventive Dentistry Department at the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Toronto
Explaining with references why he changed his mind about adding fluorosilicic acid to drinking water.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/limeback.htm
Even a Nobel laureate in medicine (Carlson) is appalled that he stood up against it
If you can't trust a scientific website in the country - then who is left to trust?
Emmanuel, ultra-Orthodox like you (and I mean this time in the literal sense - people who are afraid of everything) have other websites. No one wants to lower your IQ and no one is harming you, on the contrary, all the food and water treatments only increased your life expectancy and you should be thankful for that.
This is not a conspiracy, father, this is hard science
You are irresponsible to even imply that you support it, as the editor of the site.
According to WHO statistics, the amount of caries and fillings in the countries that inject fluorosilicic acid into the drinking water, and there are only 12 in the world (3 in Europe) has not decreased any more
Of the countries that not only do not fluoridate, the vast majority in the world include Japan, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, but due to the scientific information in the last 20-30 years, they even repealed their laws and made it illegal, such as Sweden and the Netherlands
http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/teeth/caries/who-dmft.gif
Among other things, you have 24 Chinese studies that show that it lowers IQ!
You should have the number 1 motivation in the country to fight this crime
You are wrong on the website, this is another conspiracy theory, would you like to lose your teeth at the age of 40 and suffer until then with cavities and holes in your pocket because of the cost of the dentist? You need a minimum of responsibility to write even such comments.
And this connects to one of the greatest crimes of the State of Israel against its citizens.
The introduction of fluorosilicic acid from industrial waste into drinking water.
The pineal gland in the brain, which is responsible among other things for the function of sleep (melatonin), is the tissue that most absorbs fluoride in the body
And the fluoride causes her functional problems
http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/pineal/
And from there to everything that the article here describes.
Dr. Arvid Carlsson, a famed pharmacologist at Gothenburg University and recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology 2000
"I think those nations that are using it [Water Fluoridation] should feel ashamed of themselves. It's against science."
Maybe the sisters gained weight because at night there are more breaks and then they eat out of boredom.
I wonder how we would divide the hours if there was perpetual light or alternatively perpetual darkness
There are people who live close to the poles of the Earth, for whom the regime of light/dark hours changes dramatically throughout the year.
It is interesting what the symptoms appear in them and how they are similar and/or related to the symptoms observed in the mice experiment.
Joe
From what I understand, the meaning of 'brainwashing' refers to cases where the efficiency of brain function decreases when a change occurs in the organism's biological clock.
I didn't understand what kind of brainwashing it was