Picture this: A college student is preparing for a big exam for the next day. They can either study or they can sleep. Which do they sacrifice? Whenever we have something important to prepare for, an exam, an interview, or even a first day at work, one of the first things we sacrifice is our sleep. Experts from the National Institute of Health report that the average adult needs approximately 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night. If a person is not getting this amount of sleep, it can lead to detrimental health concerns. Furthermore, the body has an internal biological clock that controls sleep/awake cycles throughout a 24 hour period. This biological clock is called a circadian rhythm.
In the article “Tuning into Our Body’s Internal Clock Can Do More for Medicine” by Kes Lippert, the benefits of taking advantage of the circadian rhythm is discussed. Kes explores the circadian rhythm’s influence on the body as well as the outside stimuli’s effect on the internal clock. When there is light outside, the body releases cortisol that jolts a person awake. The main stimulus that affects the circadian rhythm is light stimulus that travels through the eye via ganglion cells until it reaches the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Several mechanisms such as body temperature, autonomic nervous system activity, and various hormones are controlled by the internal clock and therefore impacted by external stimuli. A synchronized internal clock with the outside world is the key to optimal health. On the contrary, the desynchrony of the internal clock to the outside world can have detrimental effects on a person’s health such as causing cancer. The study of optimizing health by studying and understanding the circadian rhythm is called chronotherapy. Chronotherapy is a field that scientists are delving deeper into, yet have much to learn.
Some places where chronotherapy is already being used include cancer treatment in the administration of medicine, for travelers with jet lag, to minimize asthma symptoms, and more. By administering the same medicine but in accordance with the biological clock of the patient, the success of the medication is significantly improved. One of the main benefits of chronotherapy is the ability to adjust it in accordance with the ailment with its signs and symptoms. By implementing the knowledge we know about chronobiology, there could be a great improvement on modern medicine’s efficacy. The challenge with chronotherapy is that it is very difficult to understand each individual's circadian rhythm and then make a drug that applies to the general public. Chronobiology is unique in each individual therefore if it is effective for one person to take that medicine in the morning, it is not guaranteed to be effective for a person with a late chronobiology. These matters need to be further studied to be able to find a way to expand the field of chronotherapy to improve modern medicine.
In the article “Circadian Desynchrony and Health” by Keith C. Summa and Fred W.Turek, the effects of a continuously disrupted circadian rhythm is studied in relation to disease. This article explores the detrimental effects on a living organism's health when their internal clock is misaligned with their external environment. The first case study indicating these negative effects was done on shift workers who worked during the night and slept during the day or had unpredictable sleeping patterns. Some of the diseases that are currently being studied to be correlated to the circadian system are cardiovascular disease, the metabolism, microbiota, G.I. disease, and cancer.
Studies done in mice showed that from a group of mice that all developed cardiomyopathy at a young age, the mice with a disrupted circadian system died much younger than the mice that slept with their circadian rhythm. This study also suggested that not having an internal clock system could be better than having a disrupted one for a living organism's health. In metabolism, circadian rhythms have shown to be connected with obesity and diabetes providing essential insight on life-style habits that can help reduce obesity rates in humans as well. The microbiota has been studied to show that a disrupted circadian system results in a disruption in the gut microbiome. Although there needs to be more research done in this field, the study of the microbiota and circadian system serves helpful in the prevention and treatment of disease. A disrupted circadian is also related to G.I. disease. Studies on mice show that circadian disruption causes inflammatory bowel disease which aligns with reports on patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Finally with cancer, circadian disruption causes the cells ability to divide and delete incorrect genomes to weaken therefore allowing for unregulated cell division causing cancer. There is continuous research being done on how circadian rhythms can be used to help cancer treatments become more successful.
The connection between these two articles is that they both recognize the positive effects of the synchronization of the biological clock with the outside world as well as the negative effects of the desynchronization of these two. The two articles focus on two sides of the same coin. There is further research that needs to be conducted to both fully understand the negative effects of living opposed to one’s biological clock. When we understand that fully, we can better treat symptoms that present themselves as a result of this. Furthermore, we can also try to change worker conditions that make it so shift workers must go against their biology. Ironically, it is the people who work in healing others that most detrimentally suffer as a result, because they need to work against their circadian rhythms. Future research may shed light to how we can alter or even disable these internal clocks in order to not suffer the consequences of not following them. On the other side of the spectrum, these biological clocks can be further studied to improve medical approaches to curing illness such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Both of these approaches to the circadian rhythm hold great value and promise for the future.
References:
Summa, K.C. & Turek, F.W. (2014). Circadian Desynchrony and Health. In M.H. Kryger, A. Y. Avidan, & R. Berry (Eds.). Atlas of Clinical Sleep Medicine (2 ed., pp. 140-147).
“How Much Sleep Is Enough?” National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep/how-much-sleep#:~:text=Experts%20recommend%20that%20adults%20sleep,or%20more%20hours%20a%20night. Accessed 1 Mar. 2024.
Lippert, Kes. “Tuning into Our Body’s Internal Clock Can Do More for Medicine.” Advanced Science News, 29 Nov. 2023, www.advancedsciencenews.com/tuning-into-our-bodys-internal-clock-can-do-more-for-medicine/.
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