Have you ever noticed how you feel a bit off after traveling to a new time zone or after switching to a night shift?
It’s not just in your head.
Scientists from the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta have found out that messing up our body clocks can actually lead to serious health issues.
Rats, Light Schedules, and Blood Pressure
Researchers did a study on rats with high blood pressure, a common condition that can lead to strokes.
They wanted to see what happens to these rats when their body clocks get messed up.
Here’s some background. Our bodies have natural rhythms called circadian rhythms. These rhythms help our bodies know when it’s time to do things like eat, sleep, and wake up.
One of these rhythms is a drop in blood pressure at night. In healthy people, blood pressure drops by about 10% to 15% when they’re asleep.
Light plays a big role in these rhythms. Our brains have a main clock that gets set by exposure to light.
When the timing of light changes, like when we work overnight shifts or change time zones, our brain’s clock can get out of sync with the rest of our body. This can lead to health problems.
What Did They Find?
The scientists set up four groups of rats. Some groups had regular light schedules, while others had light schedules that changed.
They turned the lights off six hours earlier every week to mimic the experience of working rotating shifts.
Two of the groups could eat whenever they wanted. The other two groups could only eat for five hours each day. The researchers wanted to see how eating habits might affect the timing of strokes in the rats.
They found out that when the rats had messed-up light schedules, they didn’t have the normal drop in blood pressure at night. This could cause damage to their hearts.
Also, they found out that eating at regular times seemed to protect the rats from strokes, even when their light schedules were disrupted. It also delayed the timing of strokes.
So, What Does This Mean for Us?
This study shows us that our body clocks matter a lot for our health. When they get out of sync, it can lead to serious health problems like heart damage and stroke.
This is especially important for people who have jobs with changing schedules, like night shifts.
On the other hand, eating at regular times seems to help. It can protect against the damage caused by disrupted body clocks.
In the words of Anne M. Ramsey, Ph.D., the lead researcher of this study, “These findings show that our body’s rhythms and the time of day are important to consider during medical research.”
Although this study was done on rats, it gives us valuable insights into how our bodies work.
It helps us understand why changing our normal schedules can feel so tough and even harmful to our health. It also shows us that we can do something about it by eating at regular times.
If you care about stroke, please read studies about how to eat to prevent stroke, and scientists find a breakfast linked to better blood vessel health.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how the Mediterranean diet could protect your brain health, and wild blueberries can benefit your heart and brain.
The study was published in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology.
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