The Body Clock vs. Body Fat
According to a recent research by scientists at The University of Manchester,
the body
clock plays an important role in body
fat. In the words of Professor Ray " Essentially we discovered that the
circadian clock, protein REVERB plays an important role in the safe accumulation
of body
fat. Usually as fat accumulates
there is inflammation in the body which leads to diabetes and heart
disease. Our research shows that this process is linked to the body clock."
The idea of a biological clock may sound like a quaint metaphor, but there is
actually a very distinct brain region that is charged with keeping time: It is
an area called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (or SCN), situated right above the
point in the brain where the optic nerve fibers cross. This location enables the
SCN to receive the cues it needs from light in the environment to help it keep
time.
The team found that REVERB affects obesity-related inflammation by regulating
both,
-
a hormone that comes from fat, adiponectin, and
-
a master regulator of inflammation A20
It is known that the body's clock is responsible for more than just sleep and
wakefulness. Other systems, like hunger, mental alertness, and mood, stress,
heart function, andimmunity also
operate on a daily rhythm. It was further observed that patients who undergo weight
loss surgery had both an increase
in the hormone adiponectin in the circulation, but also the inflammation
regulator A20 in fat itself.
Previous studies have also shown an association between the dys-regulation of
circadian or body clock rhythms and some metabolic disorders. Disruption of
circadian clock regulation plays a key role in the development of metabolic
diseases, including obesity and
diabetes. Eating unhealthy foods causes health problems and that it's much worse
to eat unhealthy foods at the wrong time.
Healthy clockwork = healthy body and mind
 The human body is a cyclical machine, and circadian variation in physical and
cognitive performance is readily observable at both the individual and
population levels. These behavioural outputs stem from circadian regulation of
neuronal, physiological and endocrine function; examples include rhythms in core
body temperature, heart rate, and in cortisol and melatonin secretion . Indeed,
the majority of body and cell functions, appear to have some circadian
component. For example, elements of both the adaptive and innate immune system
are subject to circadian regulation , as is the severity of many disease states
including myocardial infarction and depression. More than 20% of gene expression
in a given tissue has been estimated to be under circadian regulation at either
the transcriptional or protein level, with further circadian regulation being
evident through post-translational protein modification.
There is no doubt, that our bodies are temporally orchestrated by the clockwork. Whether
it is the regulation of daily cell metabolism, the cell division cycle or the
modulation of mood and neurological function, the circadian clockwork is
hard-wired into all body processes.
Ref
Dated 09 September 2014
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