Disturbances of the biological rhythm can have consequences

Within WHO there is an organization called International Agency for Research Cancer ( IARC). 

This organization has produced a  monograph on night shift work and cancer.  We are doing night shift work during the time when people in general are usually sleeping. People often work night shifts  in health care, manufacturing, transport, retail and services sectors. In the monograph IARC says that night shift work probably can be carcinogenic  to human beings. This was based on limited evidence from human studies (about breast, prostate, colon and rectum cancers)  sufficient evidence of cancer in experimental animals and strong mechanistic evidence in experimental animal. (mechanistic evidence means that the physiological processes  behind the development of cancer  are known)

 

Among the mechanistic evidence you have research about the circadian clock. When the circadian rhythm is disturbed  the production of melatonin from the pineal gland is reduced which means less melatonin in the blood. One thing we know about melatonin is that it is a strong antioxidant which counteract the free radicals. Free radicals are produced in our cells when the energy in the body is produced but the free radicals are side effects which can hurt tissues and cells just as side effects of medical drugs can hurt. In the long run this side effects might be carcinogenic.

Other mechanistic evidence are effect of  sleep disturbances on the immune system, irregular proliferation of cells. (Needed to restore for example  damaged cells in the gastrointestinal canal – one can say that we haft night shift repairing work in the body  while sleeping.)

 

What happens to shift workers circadian rhythm is called social jet lag. If you fly over several time zones many disturbances happen with our body’s circadian clock. We can get sleep disturbances but many organs can be affected. Problems from the gastro intestinal canal are not uncommon.  The social jet lag started when we got constant access to good light regardless of the time of day. The advent of television and later other types of monitors have changed many people’s life and many are tied to the apparatus much of the time.   People seldom experience twilight and darkness which are natural stimulus for sleep. In addition, a lot of time is spent indoors and  time in the daylight can be a very small part of a day, perhaps only 10 percent.   Daylight a dark winterday in Sweden is perhaps 1000 LUX and a sunny day it can be significantly more up to 100 100 LUX. Insade the light is between 25-200 LUX. This is important  for the production of melatonin which during the day takes place in the mitochondria of our cells. The mitocondriia are the part of the cell where energy is produced and it is ingenious that the melatonin produced there during daytime and thus can neutralize the free radicals that are formed during the energy production.

As a matter of fact many of us live with a social jet lag, which can lead to many cases of illness. Some of these illnesses are serious. It is wise to try reducing these risk factors. The body has during thousands of years  developed mechanisms  to take care of our health and it is only recently we have got a lot of knowledge about it. A researcher Till Roenneberg said the following:  Imagine you put laundry in the washing machine and put on a program that will run for70 minutes. You don’t stop it after 10 minutes and take out the laundry ?!, But that’s exactly  how we treat our body when we go to the fridge and grab a sandwich late at night.  Then we break our body’s repair process. And there are many ways to destroy the natural body rhythm

 

Do we have an internal clock in our bodies?

Yes, we have. But we do not use very smart nowadays. By the way, it's not just a watch. Research says that almost every cell in our body has its own clock and that the clock is unique to each cell. It instructs the cell in what to do. If it is a cell that is intended to produce hormone, it tells the cell that it is now time to do so. The hormone cortisol is mostly produced during the day and is our awakening hormone. It is daylight that starts the production of cortisol. There is also a hormone, melatonin, that stimulates our sleep. Dark and dim light facilitates and induces the production of melatonin in a gland in the brain. the pineal gland.

Roughly speaking, the day has two main components: day and night.

During the day we will eat, work, socialize and so on.

During the night we will rest and sleep.

But it's not really that simple. Even during rest and sleep, a lot happens in the body and not least in the brain. During the night, repair and cleansing processes take place in the body. During the day, a lot of residual products of the activity that took place during the day have accumulated in the brain and now during sleep, these must be collected and removed from the brain. It is believed that this can be of great importance in reducing diseases of the brain.

The stomach and intestines work hard during the day. Food and drink have come to be refined. It involves wear and tear on the surfaces of the gastrointestinal tract that come in contact with food and the substances, chemicals that the body uses to assimilate food. In the stomach, stomach acid is produced, which is a fairly strong acid that sometimes kills bacteria that should not be present in food. Of course, these chemicals also leave marks on the body's own tissue, such as mucous membranes and the like. During the night, these damages must be repaired and it is the cells' bells that contribute to this repair process being able to take place.

But what happens if you take a sandwich late at night. Then all these repair activities must stop because now the digestion must start again. And even worse if you wake up and eat in the middle of the night. Then there will never be a proper repair done in the gastrointestinal tract. We will of course notice it, through acid reflux, a lot of gas, pain, stomach cramps, diarrhea, constipation. And perhaps even worse, there are studies that show that a circadian rhythm that deviates from our biological clock can contribute to several different diseases.

For many years I have had slightly varying stomach problems. It got a little better when it was discovered that I do not tolerate gluten. Then I started something called the FODMAP diet which means that you exclude foods that can cause you to get fermentation processes in the stomach due to certain bacteria. With this diet I got better and could handle my problems. But when I read that limiting the time you eat can reduce such symptoms, I started applying this. I have started eating for a period of nine hours during the day and fast the rest. During "fasting" I get to drink water. This has now been going on for about 40 days.

From day two, I have not had any symptoms from the stomach. I hope it continues that way. It seems that there is a lot of important news in this research about the body's circadian rhythm.

As mum said. Children, go out into the open air !

 A paradox is concept which holds condradictory traits. Recently I saw a youtube video about vitamin D and outcomes of Covid 19. Research has discovered that Covid 19 patients with low blood levels of vitamin D were less likely to survive than those with higher values. But on the other hand substitutions of vitamin D early did not alter this outcome. And that's a paradox, how come?

This is a  classic topic when examining research result. There can be many other factors which are working beside the vitamin D. In the video Roger Seheult  Med Cram  tells us about  other studies about correlations  of sunshine and  covid 19.  And when being out in the open air  and the daylight-sunlight several other things happen to the body. One thing we know happen is that daylight is important for the production of melatonin in the mitocondrias. But there are also many things we don't know about yet which perhaps happens to us when we are out in the sunlight -daylight. So that melatoninproduction in the mitocondrias is only a hypothesis.

 In the mitocondrias the energy which the cells need is produced. When energy is produced sideproducts are also produced which can cause oxidative stress. This stress can hurt and destroy  proteins in the cell and in the long run this can cause  chronic inflammation and disease. The melatonin functions as a very strong antioxidant and counteract the  oxidative stress. Perhaps this is what happens when covid 19 seems to be worse in the northern parts where there is less sunshine.

Exercise and disease especially Multiple Sclerosis

I just read an article on the internet about exercise and different diseases. It is an interview  with a Swedish neurologist Anders Funkquist. He says that he sees a clear difference between patients who do exercise and those who don't. Almost all sorts of patients can do better  with the right  form of activities. Of course there are patients who are in a situation where exercise is not the best form of activitity . People may need to save their energy for the things in life which give them the best life quality. Some people can walk with big difficulties and are very sceptic to wheelchairs. But in certain situations this is the  best for them. Perhaps they enjoy being out in nature, going walking downtown but they do not have the energy to do it. In such situations a wheelchair can be the best way to enjoy being outside. Sometimes you can use the wheelchair as a walking support like a walker. In situations it could be important to have beds which help you to rise and so on, so that you can use your energy to do things you like. These were my own thoughts, but many patients are getting better  by the right exercise and among those many with neurological diseases as MS.

Dr Funkquist says it important to exercise even if you don't have problems right now but you can prevent future problems or make them less serious. He says that especially training of balance and coordination is important and that is my own  experience too. As a matter of fact that'a one of the reasons why i wrote my book about MS. Funkquist talks abour MS and progression. There are no studies saying that exercise would halt progression in MS but there are studies about exercise for a big population which shows that exercise halts brain atrophy- and of course he says that is applicable for MS patients too. If you do a research for such studies it is very easy to find them. A review of the effects of physical traning. Effects of physical activity on brain function.

I have found that exercise made a great part of my fatigue go away. And of course I got a better shape. My balance too. And when my fatigue disappeared  my memory became better.

So I completely  agree with dr Funkquist about training. This is my painting Autumn. Painting is a good training for dexterity