Change meal times, equal to metabolic disorders

• April 25, 2024

Modifying meal times can cause metabolic disorders, that is, eating when we should sleep promotes overweight and metabolic syndrome.

Circadian synchronization is necessary for the proper functioning of the body, so altering the body mismatches, and this could contribute to the problem of obesity that lives in the world population.

The circadian rhythms are the result of the cycles of the Earth. Day and night impose challenges of adaptation to our behavior and organs. In the day we are active, awake, eat and have digestive functions.

While at night we sleep, rest, repair our tissues, enter a state of energy saving and lower our temperature. Although it seems that these cycles are not important, our body has to adjust to them.

In turn, the brain has a biological clock that receives signals from the eye on the changes of light and darkness that are transmitted by the sympathetic, parasympathetic system and some hormones to all organs and even to the skin.

 
Carolina Escobar Briones, academic from the Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM , explained that the organs are governed by cycles, because in all the cells of the body we have clock genes, which present cycles of 24 hours and that interact with the genes that regulate the metabolism in glucose.

Each process is coordinated by circadian rhythms that give the organism a temporary order for the physiology to work properly and, when altered, lead us to gain weight and present metabolic syndrome, he added.

"Young people who like to keep up and people who work at night are exposed to this situation."

Research studies carried out in the university's laboratory indicate that those who keep awake and work at night tend to eat at odd hours, which could interfere with their biological clock and send wrong signals to the organs.

In addition, it has been found that glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride levels are altered by adjusting lifestyle; eating in the sleep phase generates problems of overweight and obesity, so that being all the indices above normal, presents the metabolic syndrome.

"The biological clock coordinates the organs so that they work at certain times and perform certain activities; it has congruence and metabolic homeostasis. "

When this clock gives the wrong signals, either by social activity or eating at night, there is a mismatch in the human body, because our body is not prepared to do so.

The circadian system and the alteration of our circadian rhythms are important factors that can contribute to the problem of obesity, because although Mexicans have a genetic propensity, lifestyle has changed a lot, and this contributes to the development of both diseases, concluded Escobar Briones.

Video Medicine: Will Many Small Meals Throughout the Day Enhance Metabolism? (April 2024).