HEALTH IS ROOTED IN HEALTHY CIRCADIAN HABITS

HEALTH IS ROOTED IN HEALTHY CIRCADIAN HABITS 

Hey, friends as we all know that our life is getting so hectic that we sometimes are unable to take care of our health. And which in turn, we are affected by many diseases. So today, I'll share with you some really revolutionary ideas of how to prevent, manage, and cure these diseases. And the idea is based on the concepts of circadian rhythm, our near-24-hour rhythms. To adapt to the 24-hour light-dark cycle, or day-night cycle, on our planet, almost every plant and animal has circadian rhythms that are controlled by what we call circadian clocks. These are actually encoded in our DNA and this is so fundamental to life forms on our planet that if we move any animal or human from this planet to another planet that has identical conditions as the planet Earth but has a day-night cycle other than 24 hours, then we cannot easily survive. So how do we know that these clocks are in-built?

For example, if you lock me inside an apartment with no clue about outside time, then my circadian clock will make me go to sleep around 10:00 at night. I'll go into a deep sleep around 2:00, and anticipating waking up, my body will warm up around 4:00 in the morning. As soon as I wake up and open my eyes, my sleep hormone melatonin will plummet, and my stress hormone cortisol level will rise. My peak performance time for the brain will be around noon. And my peak athletic performance will happen around late afternoon. As evening rolls in, the circadian clock will crank up melatonin to make me go to sleep again, and my body will cool down to support my sleep. So this will continue every 24 hours, even if I'm locked inside an apartment and these rhythms happen because almost every single gene in our genome turns on and off at different times of the day. Every single hormone and brain chemical also rises and falls at different times of the day. So to have these rhythms is actually to have health. When these rhythms break down, when we stay awake late into the night finishing an assignment or taking care of a loved one, then we feel horrible the next day. And if we continue abusing our clock for weeks or months, then all these chronic diseases can happen. So it's very important, then, to know how are these clocks organized so that we can nurture them much better.

Photo by Acharaporn Kamornboonyarush from Pexels

So as you can imagine, just like in our brain we have a clock that makes us go to sleep and wake up every day, the same brain clock sends chemical signals to the rest of the body. But what is really surprising is that almost every organ in our body and even every single cell in our body has its own clock. What does that mean? It means that just like your brain clock makes us more efficient at solving complex problems in the middle of the day, and also the brain needs to sleep at night, every organ has its own peak performance time at certain times of the day. And every organ needs to sleep, or rest and rejuvenate, at another time. So all these clocks work together to give us daily rhythms in sleep, metabolism, mood, and even gut microbiome. But how are these clocks connected to the outside world? In fact, every morning as we wake up and open our eyes, bright light goes through our eyes and resets or synchronizes this clock, so that when daylight savings time changes, or when we move from one time zone to another time zone, light synchronizes all of our clocks to the new season or the new time zone.

Photo by Louis Hansel @shotsoflouis on Unsplash

So light is not the only factor that affects our clock. In fact, just like a light in the middle of the night disturbs the brain clock and breaks the chemical balance in our brain, food at the wrong time can disturb the peripheral clock and break the metabolic balance in our body, and that will push us towards disease. Now, let's figure out how. So in the morning, our stomach is actually ready with the right amount of hormones and digestive enzymes, and even good gut microbiome to digest food. So after we eat our first breakfast, a body absorbs enough carbohydrates and uses it to fuel our body. At the same time, it saves a little bit of nutrients as fat. As we continue at lunch and dinner, the same process continues. And after the last dinner, the last bite, a body slowly goes low on the carb. At the same time, the circadian clock cranks up morning fat. And after a few hours, the clock turns into a reset and repair rejuvenation mode. That means that it turns on enzymes that will break down cholesterol and toxins. It also turns on mechanisms to repair the DNA that we have damaged during the daytime. And a lot of cells that are damaged on our stomach lining or our skin lining are also replaced with healthy new cells so that allergy-causing chemicals or bacteria cannot get into our body. So after 12 to 16 hours of fasting, when we eat our next breakfast, the cycle of nurture, rejuvenation continues. But imagine if we delay that last bite late into the night. So in this case, this daily rhythm in metabolism becomes shallow. There is not enough time to burn fat, and there is not enough time to break down the toxins, cholesterol, etc. 

So some researchers took research on a few groups of people who need to eat within 8 to 10 hours. So they try to eat all of their food somewhere between 8, 10, or 11 hours. And when they do that, after a few weeks, they're truly amazed by the untapped potential of the healing power of circadian rhythm. Almost all of them lose a little bit of weight, but as they continue, they actually feel much better, more energetic throughout the day. They sleep much better at night, and their mood is much better; they feel very sharp. And slowly, over months, they suffer less from different diseases of the gut, heart, immune system, diabetes and even some of the mental diseases. So they were truly excited about this study.

So friends as seen from the above, the circadian rhythm is not a new thing. These all things were followed when we were kids and when there was less usage of gadgets. So for a healthy life and mental balance and to be away from all the diseases we should follow the circadian rhythm. Let me summarise the above things in the points below.

1. Wake up early

2. Go for a walk or exercise for the fresh morning light and air.

3. Eat within 8 to 10 hrs after you wakeup

4. Have your dinner early atleast 3 hours before your sleep so that you can fast for atleast 12 to 13 hours before your breakfast

5. Stay away from gadgets atleast1 hr before you sleep.

6. Sleep early.

the above points will help you follow the circadian rhythm and can have a Healthy Life.