Circadian Rhythms and How They Can Help Reduce Obesity

Circadian rhythms encompass physiological, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24 hour cycle. These processes play significant roles in particular organs functions, immunity, metabolism, hormonal production in humans as well as feeding and sleeping patterns found in all animals. These changes are generated endogenously and they respond to cyclical conditions of the earth such as the light and darkness in an organism’s environment. For example, your body responds to the light in your environment and will tell your body to wake or rest depending on how much light stimuli is around you. If you are receiving a lot of light, your body will tell you wake up. If you are not receiving that much light, like during the night, your body will tell you to sleep and you will start feeling drowsy. Not only are circadian rhythms important to our sleep patterns, but they affect our appetite and eating habits as well.

Researchers and scientists are very interested in the connection between circadian rhythms and feeding patterns. Austin Dreyer and his team, for example, look to Drosophila for this connection. In Dreyer’s talk, “Circadian Regulation of Drosophila Feeding Behavior,” he talks about how examining fruit flies’ circadian rhythms and feeding behavior will help us understand human circadian regulation and they relate to human feeding behavior. This is because Drosophila and mammals have a clear overlap in many physiological as well as genetic aspects, which demonstrates that they have similar circadian regulation. Dreyer and his research team discuss zeitgebers which are environmental cues that affect or alter the circadian rhythm of the organism. Light exposure and food availability were found to be obvious entrainment signals in Drosophila and these are also very similar in humans as well.

The article “Changes in breakfast and dinner timings can reduce body fat” relates to Dreyer’s research. In this article, the research of Dr. Jonathan Johnson from the University of Surrey is discussed. They discovered that altering meal times even just a little bit can actually reduce human body fat; they lost about twice as much body fat than those who did not alter their meal times. This study portrayed the impact of meal times on our bodies and how these changes to our eating habits can be beneficial for our health. Obesity is a major health issue not only in the United States but also all around the world. Globally and nationally, obesity has increasingly become a prevalent and common problem for millions of people. This research could be another small step towards reducing obesity and diseases that are caused or related to being overweight or obese.

University of Surrey. "Changes in breakfast and dinner timings can reduce body fat." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 30 August 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180830084826.htm>.