For Your Health, Choose Well When And How Much You Eat
A study finds that the biological clocks that govern the metabolism can be altered by eating late or excessively. Eating during the day and resting and fasting at night promote good timing.
The hours at which we eat, the amount of calories and the type of food we eat in each determine how the body will respond.
This finding, which was intuited but not proven, can have many implications for planning a healthy diet or for the schedules to administer certain medications. The finding is important for the treatment of different diseases.
Why it is important to eat during the day and sleep at night
For the first time, a study shows that the body secretes glucocorticoid hormones such as cortisol, which control blood glucose and fat levels, differently during the day or at night, while fasting or being full, during the activity or rest throughout a 24-hour cycle.
Research conducted with laboratory mice and published in Molecular Cell has shown that we secrete more glucocorticoid hormones during the day and during meals, and less at night and on an empty stomach. There is also a 24-hour cycle for the storage or release of sugar or fat from the liver.
Synchronized with the sunlight
Each cell in the human body is governed by an internal clock that follows a 24-hour cycle, synchronized with the cycle of natural light through sunlight and also social habits.
In a healthy, “well-timed” person, the adrenal glands begin to produce glucocorticoid hormones (which are related to activity) in the morning. This secretion allows the body to use fatty acids and glucose as energy sources to carry out daily activities.
If this natural cycle is disturbed, as occurs in people who work at night and sleep during the day, in those who make transoceanic trips by plane or those who receive long-term treatment with glucocorticoids, profound metabolic alterations can occur that lead to obesity, type two diabetes or fatty liver.
The researchers, led by Henriette Uhlenhaut and Fabiana Qualiarini, from the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the German Center for Diabetes Research, used the most advanced technologies to analyze how the liver of laboratory animals fed a diet responded every four hours. high in fat. They found that the aforementioned hormones control the rhythmic activity of many genes and when this control is lost, the levels of sugar and fat are altered.
Different treatments for thin or obese people
The scientists also observed that the body of obese and thin people responds differently to the administration of steroidal drugs, something that until now was not taken into account. These drugs, like cortisones, are widely used to treat autoimmune diseases, cancer or allergies.
“We can now describe the link between lifestyle, hormones, and physiology at the molecular level, which suggests that obese people respond differently to hormone secretion or corticosteroid medications. These mechanisms are the basis for the design of new therapeutic approaches, “ say the study authors.
Reference:
- Fabiana Quagliarini et al. Cistromic Reprogramming of the Diurnal Glucocorticoid Hormone Response by High-Fat Diet. Molecular Cell.
