Activity and Health

It is becoming known that the origin of circadian rhythm is linked to oxidative stress. This is entrained by sunlight, which is linked to activity.This is the body's way to link activity with metabolism and immunity through the circadian clock that uses the intermediaries of nutrition, temperature and physical activity, all being sources or form of vibrational energy and signalling molecules. The SCN, linked to photoneurones, makes factors that constitute clock proteins. These drive nerve and hormonal activity. They operate within a negative-feedback loop. Each organ has individual clock proteins that govern metabolic activity.

The rate and extent of activity vary among organ tissues. However, some organs such as the liver, the kidney and intestines are governed by a common clock protein. Hence, the stress hormone,cortisol, released by the primary clock protein governs energy mobilization and catabolism as activity takes place in tamdem with individual organ clocks.The primary clock, itself entrained by sunlight, in turn, synchronizes(entrains) individual clocks, driven by local transcription or growth factors.

''The circadian clock is the same for different organs but the hands of clock aren't'', possibly due to different times genes are open for transcription(enhancers exposure) in different organs. Different cell types have different enhancers. All organs have a 24-hr cycle circadian clock.

DNA replication and cell division(anabolism)i.e cell growth, will be scheduled in the night, when there is less oxidative stress, while catabolism promoted by stress hormone takes place in the day time to coincide with upregulated functioning of organs. In sleep and darkness, various organs, normally influenced by active brain, slow down.

In the day, even if the body and mind are in the resting state, the environmental stress(light, sound, smell, emotions) is sufficient to raise metabolism. And if these are not accompanied by physical activity to use up mobilized glucose and fat from stores, blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood lipids rise, leading to metabolic syndrome.

In night shifts, with repairs programmed to take place at night, with the convenience of no light or other stressors, genes will be active at the wrong times with respect to activity. Again, mobilization of food from stores during the day from stressors(sleep time for night time workers) will engender metabolic syndrome. It takes time for circadian rhythm to adjust to fit activity in shift workers. And even then, the background noise from daytime stressors will not guarantee optimal function.

Dr Oliver Verbe Birnso, MD.

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