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Do High-Fat Foods Disrupt Your Body Clock?

Mice that ate a high-fat diet gained weight and experienced a disruption in their circadian clocks, which regulate metabolic functions such as when they go to sleep, wake up and become hungry.

The disruption threw off the timing of the animals’ internal signals, including appetite control. As a result, the mice ate extra calories during the time when they would have otherwise been asleep or resting. For humans, this would be the equivalent of raiding the refrigerator in the middle of the night.

The high-fat diet and resulting weight gain also triggered diminished expression of genes that encode the clock in the brain and in peripheral tissues.

The findings suggest that changes in metabolic state that occur with obesity and diabetes affect not only circadian rhythms of behavior but also physiology.

Past studies have found that a misaligned body clock can throw off your metabolism, and increase your risk of obesity and diabetes.

This represents a “vicious loop,” according to researchers, because once weight is gained, your internal clock is disrupted, and a disrupted clock makes the original problem worse.

"Timing and metabolism evolved together and are almost a conjoined system," said one of the study’s authors Joe Bass, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and neurobiology and physiology at Northwestern and head of the division of endocrinology and metabolism at ENH. "If we perturb the delicate balance between the two, we see deleterious effects."

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Dr. Mercola''s Comments Dr. Mercola's Comments:

The problem with virtually all diet studies like the one above is that they tend to ignore a profound foundational element of human physiology. The very foundation of their study presumes that all humans have similar food requirements.

If you have been reading this site for a while you will know that nothing could be further from the truth. Some were designed to eat high-fat, high-protein diets while others thrive on low-fat, low-protein diets. 

Analysis of these premises becomes a bit more cloudy when you switch to animal models, as they tend to have a more homogenous genetic background, especially the animals that are bred for scientific experiments. The researchers are assuming they can generalize their findings to humans, but for this type of research I do not believe the science supports it.

So Just What Can You Do to Improve Your Sleep Cycle?

Your sleep/wake cycle, regulated by your circadian rhythm (or your body’s internal clock), has evolved over many years. If you violate these very powerful biorhythms, you are asking for trouble.

What may surprise you is that your body has many internal clocks -- in your brain, lungs, liver, heart and even your skeletal muscles -- and they all work to keep your body running smoothly by controlling temperature and the release of hormones.

Your heart rate, body temperature and hormone production vary with your personal internal clock. This, in turn, influences such things as:
  • The easiest time to detect disease in your body
  • The times when you’ll be less sensitive to pain
  • The times when you’ll be more productive at work
However, this is a very delicate system, and it is easily thrown off kilter.

Does your diet also impact your internal clock? Definitely.

What you eat sends your body signals about when to wake up and go to sleep. Your meals, which are typically at relatively consistent times throughout the day, also help to reinforce other time-setting activities.

In terms of foods themselves, protein-rich foods help your body to produce chemicals that tell you to wake up. High-carbohydrate foods, meanwhile, produce chemicals that tell you to go to sleep.

This is why jet lag, which occurs when your body's inner clock is out of sync with the time cues it receives from your environment, can be significantly reduced by eating the right foods.

Another questionable aspect of the study is the fact that the mice were kept in darkness for the entire duration.

Changes in light dramatically impact your health and your biological clock. Mice do not typically live in complete darkness, so I question whether this impacted the results.

How to Keep Your Circadian Rhythm in Balance

Aside from being linked to obesity and diabetes, a disrupted circadian rhythm may influence cancer progression through shifts in hormones like melatonin, which your brain makes during sleep. So it’s crucial that you support your body’s natural sleep/wake cycle.

The following tips will help to keep your body’s internal clock running smoothly:
  • Sleep in total darkness!! If there is even the tiniest bit of light in your room it can disrupt your circadian rhythm and your pineal gland's production of the hormones melatonin and serotonin.
This is the “hidden” secret that most people tend to ignore. This was recently brought to my attention when the highly knowledgeable chiropractor who works in my clinic, Dr. Lloyd Fielder, told me that he never fully appreciated the power of this intervention. He recently installed black out drapes in his bedroom and was shocked at how much better he felt -- it radically improved the quality of his sleep.

So do yourself a favor this holiday season and purchase yourself some black out drapes. You will be shocked at how much better you feel, and you will also radically lower your risk of cancer.
  • Sleep when it’s dark outside and get up when the sun comes up. This is another largely ignored -- yet vitally important -- health principle. You should at least strive to sleep between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. This means you should be in bed, with the lights out, by 10 p.m. and be up by 6 a.m. If this is difficult for you, keep in mind that people naturally followed this pattern before the advent of electricity. This has been an important part of Ayurvedic medicine for over 5,000 years.
  • Avoid working the night shift. It’s been linked to significantly lower levels of serotonin, which may cause sleep problems, anger, depression and anxiety. If you currently work the night shift, I would strongly suggest trying to switch your hours, or at the very least not keeping the night shift for longer than a couple of months at a time (and giving your body a chance to readjust in between).


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Comment on This Article Community Comments (50)
 
 
Posted On Dec 01, 2007

Why doesnt our good Dr Mercola, even  just occassionally,  reprint an article from the Journal of Orhtmolecular Medicine. Then he need not try to explain away nonsensical misinformation like this, pushed out by mainstream medicine. The  only comments would be BRAVO. We all know sat fats are good, especially little known fact that they maintain cell wall  inegrity, and this PREVENTS cancer,  (A Cure For All Cancer, Hulda Clark. ND PhD.)  An anti sat fat mouse experiment, as I see it with my conspiratorial old eyes, is is simply a subtle . Why? To  scare people off sat fats, so as to protect the trillion dollar fraud that Cancer Inc perpetuates. Do you have trouble sleeping? Melatonin  tme release, 3mg, Hops/valerium herbs. Tryptophane. Eliminate tea and coffee if you dont metabolise caffeine rapidly. Ear plugs and eye mask. A bean bag pillow. Not drink much water after 3 pm,. Going to sleep at the same time every day to get max growth hormone release. The first large growth hormone  spike comes 45 minutes after your usual drop-off time. After that spike,there are only small spikes thru the nite.  For correct pressures on nternal organs, sleep on your left side. Tell yourself that any pressing problems can only be solved next day. Rotate your eyeballs towards the top of your skull, and be conscious of just that, and its morning. Any a  or all of that is far superior to cutting down essential sat fats. Bring on the juicy T bone.


 
ThomasT
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 6/2006
ThomasT  
Replied

ne_plus_ultra_1
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 9/2006
ne_plus_ultra_1  
 
Posted On Dec 01, 2007

You forgot to mention to interlace your toes with your fingers while placing your tongue firmly on the roof of your mouth and counting to 100,000 by prime numbers and their exponentials.

I'll have a T-bone with you but just relieving people from pressure of their day must have a far greater effect on their well-being than many other suggestions.



Joan Courtenay
Novice User Novice User Joined On 1/2007
Joan Courtenay  
 
Posted On Dec 10, 2007

I agree. The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine has been publishing since 1970. It's founder and editor is Dr. Abram Hoffer, who was recently awarded a prestigious prize (and $125,000) for his work in nutritional science.

Dr. Hoffer began his career as a biochemist working for the cereal food industry at a time when it began stripping flours of their nutritional components. He was rebuffed in attempting to alert the industry to the dangers of these "refined" flours because he wasn't a doctor. So he became a doctor.

Along with his medical practice, Dr. Hoffer continued his research on nutritional components of health. Working closely with Dr. Linus Pauling on Vitamin C research, he also discovered that schizophrenic patients were helped greatly by mega-vitamin therapy. He then became a psychiatrist, and for over 15 years was head of psychiatric research for a provincial government in Canada, where he conducted further research on mega-vitamin (orthomolecular) therapy, assisting thousands of people who were not helped by regular medicine.

Dr. Hoffer then began to assist people with a wide array of illnesses, not just mental illness, to become well, and even vigorous. I am one of them. I learned of Dr. Hoffer two years ago from a magazine article, and made an appointment with him. He retired from his medical practice two years ago (at the age of 88) and now operates a nutritional consulting practice.

One hour-long appointment with him changed my health, and my life. I had suffered a myriad of health problems for over 7 years following a massive systemic infection caused by dental work. I went to many doctors, and dentists, all to little avail. After getting my history and current health situation, Dr. Hoffer gave me four simple instructions: eliminate dairy and sugar, take 500 mg of niacin three times a day (not the flush-free kind), and 6-8 grams of Vit. C (read his books). In a month my health blossomed. I am healthier now than I've ever been.


 
 
 
Posted On Nov 08, 2007
Not all fats are equal.

The article doesn't clarify what kind of fat was used in the "high fat" diet group.  Was it polyunsaturated oils high in Omega-6? High in trans fatty acids? High in fat from corn fed feed lot animals? Compare that to diets higher in coconut oil, olive oil or fats high in Omega-3 fats. 

 
foxtroter_203
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 9/2006
foxtroter_203  
 
 
 
Posted On Nov 09, 2007
Exactly right, all fats are not equal. I love how they take overeating and an abnormal lifestyle and come up with the conclusion of high fat diets are bad for you. Well, it depends on what kind of fat and you need light as well as dark. I recently had a knee injury requiring an MRI, turns out my bones look like they are thirty years old while my calendar says I am 57 years old. I didn't get my young bones by eating a low fat diet!

 
qtface
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 6/2006
qtface  
 
 
 
Posted On Nov 30, 2007

Why would anyone in their right mind trust any type of experiment done on animals to be applied to humans. I am not an animal, my body makeup is different. Animal testing is archaic,barbaric,inconclusive and unessessary, not to mention cruel. I will never forget the drug Thanidomide from the 50's tested on pregnant rats with no side effects then given to pregnant women. The result, thousands of babies born with no limbs. I rest my case.


 
catuskan60
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 6/2006
catuskan60  
Replied

MickoZ
Novice User Novice User Joined On 9/2007
MickoZ  
 
Posted On Dec 01, 2007

Why?  Simply because there is similarities.  Actually, the human is an animal too.  We have difference with mice, like mice have difference with dogs, etc.  So simply, that is why.  Can we trust ALL of the experiments?  No.  Is doing this could help us find things that can be applied to us?  Yes.


 
 
 
Posted On Dec 01, 2007

I'm glad there were several comments/questions about the the kinds fats; after all not all fats are equal.  Fat from raw milk products are fundamentally different from most other fats sold for consumption.  Ditto for virgin coconut oil.  Animal fats must vary greatly depending on the animals' food sources.

IMHO the study is worthless; I say "pass the butter".


 
Gerald Sutliff
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 12/2007
Gerald Sutliff  
 
 
 
 
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