DeepSummary
In this podcast episode, world-renowned circadian rhythm expert Professor Sachin Panda discusses the importance of living in harmony with our body clocks for long-term health. He explains that every cell in our body has a 24-hour circadian rhythm that governs various biological processes, including hormone secretion, brain chemicals, digestive enzymes, and gene expression.
Panda emphasizes that disrupting our circadian rhythms, such as through shift work or irregular eating patterns, can increase the risk of chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. He describes a groundbreaking study where mice fed an unhealthy diet remained healthy when their eating was restricted to an 8-hour window, aligning with their natural circadian rhythms.
Panda recommends that everyone should eat all their food within a 12-hour window, and ideally within 8-10 hours, to allow sufficient time for the body to rest and repair. He also advises limiting caffeine intake in the afternoon and evening to improve sleep quality, as adequate sleep is crucial for overall health and well-being.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Every cell in our body follows a 24-hour circadian rhythm that governs various biological processes.
- Disrupting our circadian rhythms through irregular sleep or eating patterns can increase the risk of chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
- Aligning our eating habits with our body's natural circadian rhythms through time-restricted eating can have significant health benefits.
- It is recommended to eat all food within a 12-hour window, and ideally within 8-10 hours, to allow sufficient time for the body to rest and repair.
- Time-restricted eating may inadvertently promote healthier eating habits, such as consuming larger, more nutritious breakfasts and reducing snacking and alcohol intake.
- Adequate sleep is crucial for overall health and well-being, and caffeine intake should be limited in the afternoon and evening to improve sleep quality.
- Adapting our lifestyles to align with our body's natural circadian rhythms can improve overall health, mood, and energy levels within a few weeks to months.
- While individual circumstances may vary, making an effort to live in harmony with our body clocks can have significant long-term benefits for disease prevention and overall well-being.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “Circadian rhythms literally mean 24 hours rhythms. So that means these are the internal timetables that are present in every organ, actually in every cell in our body, that tells each of our hormones, brain chemicals, digestive juice, enzymes, or even every single gene to turn on and off at specific time of the day or night.“ by Sachin Panda
- “What we find is people actually do time restricting or interval time fasting and at the same time they improve their nutrition in interesting way.“ by Sachin Panda
- “Those who are headstrong and can eat everything within say six, eight or 9 hours, then they can do and they might see a lot of benefits. And so far what we are seeing is there are many studies, not only from our lab, from many other labs when people reduce their eating window by three or more hours. So this is where it becomes a little tricky. So for example, if you are consistently eating from say 06:00 you get up and then by 630 you have your tea with cream and sugar or a biscuit or something else. And that before going to bed at 09:00 or 08:00 you have some snack, then it's already pretty big. So if you reduce your eating window by three or more hours and it's not less than 8 hours, so then you'll actually begin to see a lot of benefits.“ by Sachin Panda
- “First thing is many people who do this, they say that within couple of weeks their sleep improves, they can sleep much better at night and then next day they feel more energetic. And then those who have a high blood sugar, blood pressure or cholesterol over three to six months they do see improvement in at least one of these parameters.“ by Sachin Panda
Entities
Company
Person
Book
Organization
Episode Information
ZOE Science & Nutrition
ZOE
6/20/24
Our modern lifestyles mean that most of us don’t live our lives in sync with our circadian rhythms, which puts our health and well-being at risk. Eating and sleeping at the right time are important tools to help us align our circadian rhythms and reduce our risk of chronic disease.
In this episode, circadian rhythm expert Prof. Satchin Panda will tell us how light and food act as master regulators of our body clock, how aligning our lifestyles with our body clock can improve our health, mood and energy levels and how to do this in practice.
Satchin is a world-leading expert in the field of circadian rhythm research. He’s associate professor at the prestigious SALK institute, he’s recipient of the Dana Foundation Award in brain and immune system imaging and he’s also the author of two best-selling books, The Circadian Code and The Circadian Diabetes Code.
Follow ZOE on Instagram
Timecodes:
00:00 Introduction
01:00 Quickfire questions
03:02 What are circadian rhythms?
03:48 How do we know about circadian rhythms?
04:44 Are all body parts on a 24 hour clock?
06:40 How the body enters sleep mode
09:25 What happens during sleep?
12:08 Why you’re not sleeping enough
13:30 The surprising impact of daylight savings time
17:00 Circadian rhythms aren’t just about light
19:55 The dangers of shift work
21:20 Should you go to bed at sunset?
25:40 Why should stop snacking at night
26:10 Satchin’s famous mice study
33:00 The best eating window for health
37:27 Does intermittent fasting promote better food choices?
40:40 Should you drink black coffee when you wake up?
Satchin’s books:
Books by our ZOE Scientists:
- Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati
- Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector
- Fibre Fuelled by Dr Will Bulsiewicz
Studies referenced in today’s episode:
- Effects of 3 months of 10-h per-day time-restricted eating and 3 months of follow-up on bodyweight and cardiometabolic health in Danish individuals at high risk of type 2 diabetes: the RESET single-centre, parallel, superiority, open-label, randomised controlled trial, published in Lancet Healthy Longevity
- Neuronal reprogramming of mouse and human fibroblasts using transcription factors involved in suprachiasmatic nucleus development, published iScience
- Learning from circadian rhythm to transform cancer prevention, prognosis, and survivorship care, published in Trends Cancer
- The Untapped Potential of Circadian Timing as a Variable for Discoveries and Reproducibility, published in Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepato
Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here.
Episode transcripts are...