Jul 10
8
Planning on a Late Bedtime? Better Think Again!
Nobody wants to hear that their daily activities or habits are causing them to be sick. But sometimes, the fact of just knowing what we are doing that is making us sick, is enough to cause the healing process to start.
Did you know that you have what’s called circadian rhythms in the body that determine what enzymes are produced at what time? The circadian rhythms are part of your internal molecular clock. Your clock gives you the ability to maintain energy levels.
When you are eating, cells of the pancreas produce insulin to keep your blood sugar or glucose levels regular and within a normal range. Scientists at the Department of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, discovered that the islet cells of Langerhans in the pancreas (the ones that produce insulin) have circadian rhythm genes. There are certain times of the day and night that the islet genes are involved in growth, glucose metabolism and insulin signaling. Type 2 diabetes impairs glucose tolerance and causes insulin secretion to decrease. It also causes the cells to shrink with age. And when the circadian rhythm is disrupted, the genes involved in growth, survival and synaptic vesicle assembly are altered.
The scientists concluded that messing up the circadian rhythms in the pancreatic clock causes Type 2 diabetes by interfering with insulin secretion during the sleep-wake cycle.
Now when was the last time you got to bed on time and what time are you going to bed tonight?
Source: Nature, June 18, 2010. Disruption of the clock components CLOCK and BMAL1 leads to hypoinsulinaemia and diabetes.
