Chronotype and metabolites

 We have presented our ongoing research in a recently concluded World Ayurveda Conference. Here is the abstract of the work. The manuscript is in preparation.

Metabolomics analysis revealed chronotypes associated metabolic alterations in healthy human adults-a pilot clinical trial

Amey Shirolkar, Gitanjali Pawar, Shridhar Chougule, Manjusha Savardekar, Meenal Joshi, Anagha Ranade, Sharad Pawar, Prashant S. Duraphe*

Purpose: Chronobiology is the study of biological rhythms. It examines the effects of time on biological events and internal biological clocks. The phenotypic expression of internal clock is called chronotype. There are very few studies to associate biomolecules and pathways with specific chronotype. Metabolites are the most versatile biomolecules which reflects the current status of the metabolism. Hence, it would be clinically relevant to associate metabolite signature with the chronotype. We hypothesize that chronotypes and Ayurvedic prakriti types are associated and need further investigation.

Methods: Chronotypes of ten (10) healthy volunteers were analysed using validated ICER chronotype questionnaire which is a modified version of Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ). Serum samples from these volunteers were utilized for isolating the metabolites and acquiring them in qualitative mode on a rapid resolution liquid chromatography - tandem mass spectrometry (RRLC-MS). The unbiased metabolomics profiling was explored to assess the signature metabolites and molecular pathways.

Results: The acquired metabolomics data was processed using statistical filters. Total 39 metabolites cleared the applied statistical filters. Partial Least Squared Discrimination analysis (PLS-DA) class prediction model yielded 93% accuracy in experimental groupings. T test (p<0.05), Fold change (FC>2.0) were also assessed and Purine, Glycerophospholipid and Thiamine metabolism were found to be the prominent metabolic pathways. Thiamine triphosphate, Deoxyuridine, Cyclic GMP, Epinephrine, Glycoholic Acid, Adenosine triphosphate, Phosphoadenosine phosphosulphate, lysophospholipid, phosphatidylethanolamines and phosphatidic acid were some of the significant marker metabolites found associated with morning and intermediate chronotypes. Adenosine triphosphate, glycoholic acid were down regulated when analysed in intermediate and morning chronotypes. While Phosphoadenosine phosphosulfate was found to be upregulated.

Conclusion: Omics analysis showed clear demarcation between chronotypes based on their metabolism and associated pathways hence it provides a potential tool to identify and characterize marker compounds for assigning chronotypes so as to incorporate chronotherapy in the disease diagnosis.

 

The origin of Chronotypes

The science surrounding chronotypes is interesting in and of itself. In recent years, we’ve learned that there are connections between chronotype and personality traits, mental health risks and overall physical health. However, recent science regarding the genetic component of chronotype take the scientific understanding of chronotypes to the next level, opening up the potential to glimpse the origin of chronotypes as well as to see their value in evolutionary terms. Not only does chronotype vary between individuals, but it also varies within a single individual according to age, leading some researchers to theorize about the evolution of and security value of these variations in hunter-gatherer cultures.

In the most basic sense of the word, chronotype describes a person’s natural sleep, wake and activity rhythm within the approximately 24-hour cycle that makes up a person’s circadian rhythm. The basic groupings are morningness, eveningness and intermediate. Due to its role in sleep timing, which can impact circadian rhythm, chronotype can impact physical and mental health in a variety of ways. That is, in part, due to the role of the circadian rhythm in the timing of near countless complex bodily processes, such as the manufacture and release of essential hormones, including melatonin and insulin. Furthermore, disruptions in the circadian rhythm, sleep quantity and sleep quality, a common occurrence when chronotype and lifestyle are at odds, can also negatively impact health and well-being, increasing the risk of numerous diseases.

Modern science and technology has opened up vast research potentials, something that has greatly benefited the study of chronotypes. With the ability to conduct genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on a massive scale, scientists have been better able to confirm that chronotypes do have genetic components. There are identifiable genetic differences between the basic chronotype groups. For example, a genetic variation in the PERIOD2 (PER2) gene is linked to later chronotypes, as opposed to those that would fall into the morningness category.

A study based on the data of about 700,000 people, collected from 23andMe and the UK Biobank, found there to be 351 genetic variants at play in determining chronotype. This confirms and adds to earlier studies noting genetic variations, with the newer study revealing far more variations related to chronotype determination. Studies suggest that between 20 percent and 50 percent of the factors involved in determining chronotype are present at birth due to genetics.

Some of the genetic variations that influence chronotype occur in genes that have to do with the correct functioning of body clocks. Other chronotype-impacting gene variations were found in the genes associated with the retina and how it translates light into signals suitable for the brain. These are just a couple of the genetic variations linked to chronotype.

Evidence of a genetic component to chronotype opens up new avenues of thought when it comes to the origin of chronotypes. Viewed through an evolutionary perspective, there could be practical value associated with chronotype variation among individuals living in a group. As noted in a study published by the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, sleep can be a vulnerable, dangerous time for animals, including humans — particularly those in pre-industrial, non-urbanized, non-agrarian societies.

Thus, variations in chronotype that result in the group not all sleeping and waking at roughly the same time, but instead result in various members of the group being awake at different times throughout the night, could be a real benefit to the security of the group and even enhance survival rates. On the path of evolution, for the most part, those that survive have a better chance of passing on their genetic material.

Interestingly, the international team of researchers involved in the study found that among the hunter-gatherer Hadza of Tanzania, all members of the group slept at the same time for just 18 minutes. The researchers observed the group for 20 days. According to the researchers, someone was awake 98.8 percent of the time. That means, in case of danger, someone was available to wake and warn the group for quite close to the entire night. The researchers explained that because of the similarities of the Hazda lifestyle to that of our ancestors in the Pleistocene period, it may be possible to glimpse some elements of our own evolutionary path.

In contemplating our evolutionary history, it is worth noting that how our bodies function is the result of thousands upon thousands of years of evolution. While we who live a modern lifestyle may feel as though we are far different from our Pleistocene ancestors or even from the Hazda, the amount of time that we’ve been living this lifestyle is just a moment in time when looking at the vast expanse of our history.

Those ancient rhythms still impact how our bodies function today. It makes sense, then, for better sleep and for better health to work with our chronotype, arranging our obligations and activities to fit better with our natural rhythms as much as possible.

https://www.chronobiology.com/the-origin-of-chronotypes-did-sleep-time-preference-evolve-over-time/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time Restricted Eating

All of nutrition science is based on two experiments. The first proved the notion of calorie restriction. If we eat less, we will lose weight and achieve better health. The second experiment supports the notion of ‘healthy diet’. The finding of second experiment proved the notion that the quality of food – its nutritional content – matters significantly when it comes to your health.

Proteins, carbohydrates and fats are called macronutrients whereas antioxidants, vitamins, minerals are called micronutrients. The entire focus of the research is to have a balanced diet which includes all of the above mentioned components in various proportions. Experimentally it is proved that high fat diet is the basic cause for obesity and diabetes. All our diagnosis, prognosis and disease management is based on the above two experiments and we tried to balance the diet and intervene in the cellular mechanism that maintains the body sugar level. Recently scientific community started bifurcating the cause of disease into poor diet and random eating behaviour. This third experiment established the idea that it is not only how much we eat and what we eat but when we eat that matters more for long term maintenance of health.

Without compromising on amount of calorie intake, if we just restrict the time of same amount of calorie intake, we provide our digestive tract and gut microbes the right time to perform its function uninterrupted by a new influx of food and enough time to repair and rejuvenate itself. Researchers have followed this up with another study, where they combined calorie restriction study with time specific calorie intake study. It was proved that low calorie food has no effect on weight loss if given at wrong time. This means that regardless of which kind of calorie restricting diet you follow, when you eat is more important than what type of food you eat.

We need food for the activity. As we are diurnal animal, we perform most of the activity during day time, hence our eating window should be as close as possible to 12 hours. Time restricted eating (TRE) is never about counting calories; it is just making you more disciplined about timing. It was proved that effective weight loss come with eating within 8 to 9 hours window. Most of our body fat burning happens 6 to 8 hrs after finishing last meal and increases almost exponentially after full 12 hours of fasting, making any amount of time fasting past 12 hrs highly beneficial for weight loss programs.

I will introduce you about chronoprakriti diet now.  A metabolic clock tuning is what targeted by chronoprakriti diet. Where is it located, how it functions and what disrupts it? The liver and pancreas along with gut microbiome are the key players in metabolic clock. Microbiome means a sum total of microorganisms present in our body. We are not in position to digest all food ingredients on our own without the help of microbes present in our digestive tract which are called gut microbiome.

There are conflicting reports about efficacy of number of meals per day or duration of fasting between two meals. It is suggested that there should be at least 5 hours gap between any two meal intakes during day time and at least 12 hours gap between dinner and breakfast on next morning. This time restricted eating pattern is shown to tune the metabolic clock by positively affecting the gut microbiome. The grazing pattern of eating does not allow the microbiome to rest and thus disrupts their rhythmicity. As the microbes are not exposed to outer environment directly, the food intake pattern is the only cue to set the rhythmicity. The type of food also decides the diversity of microbes.

Time restricted eating restricts the food intake during the active part of the day when the energy is required and avoids food intake during resting period which converts excess sugar into fat. To find out what is your current window of eating, start noting down the time of first and last food intake at least for seven consecutive days and you will be surprised to know that you eat almost all the time you are awake. This is the basic problem in our lifestyle which is very hard to change. Changes in eating pattern during weekdays and weekends, excessive intake of processed food and intake of largest meal in the late evening are few of the major wrong habits in the modern lifestyle.

Most of the religions, emphasis on fasting which is primarily to control your senses and ultimately to your mind. But the major importance of fasting at physical level is to reset your internal metabolic clock. I would suggest you shifting your eating and non-eating schedule stepwise from current 16:8 to 14:10 to 12:12 and ideally to 10:14 meaning 14 hours of gap between dinner and breakfast next day. It happens that once in while you may not able to follow this pattern for which dinner skipping at least once in a week is recommended. It will be hard in the beginning to have no food for more than 12 hours. It is recommended to drink liquid diet to begin with and then only water whenever you feel hungry.

Chronoprakriti diet plan will become personalized based on your chronoprakriti assessment. Your prakriti will decide which type of food you should prefer or avoid depending upon your age, season, geographical location and prevalent health condition. Your chronotype will decide whether you should have large breakfast or large lunch or large dinner.

Seasonal and local food products induces changes in the metabolism due to the particular phenolic profile that the product contains hence the Chronoprakriti diet insists on seasonal and local variety of food products in your diet. Even though we stick to this diet plan for weekdays and change it for weekends then body will experience what is called ‘metabolic jet lag’ Even without travelling to different time zone, your gut microbiome will experience the change in food intake that will disturb their rhythm and it will be take time to regain it.

So we should have consistent food timing on all days as much as possible. If it happens that due to social obligations, there is a change in meal pattern, it is recommended to fast next day to readjust the metabolic clock. Weekly fasting is highly recommended to keep your metabolic clock healthy. Our body is not made for 24x7 food intake. Due to availability of processed food round the clock our eating window is almost equivalent to our waking hours and that is creating all types of health issues. Our aim should be finishing a food intake in specific time span which should be less than 12 hours. If we could keep our digestive tract empty for at least 13-14 hrs then our peripheral clocks can tune themselves easily and help process excess nutrients properly by the body.

I will recommend to find out your chronoprakriti from our website and get the specific diet plan from us. Before that you may first give a try of 3 meals a day pattern with 5 hrs complete gap to find out how you feel. I am sure, you will see the positive difference even in first couple of days.

For more details do visit: www.chronoprakriti.com

Watch our YouTube Channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV4LHeYwP9kjDJH3_JJyvJg

The vicious cycle of eating at wrong time

The internal biological clock is regulated by diet, exercise and sleep-wake pattern which are also emphasized in Ayurvedic pillars of health as Ahar, Vihar and Nidra respectively. These three factors constitute our lifestyle. But most of the lifestyle management protocols does not include internal clock management. The health coach, nutritionist, counsellors or any such professional involved in preventive medicine are not even aware about basic principles of internal clock management.

See if this sounds familiar. You wake up in the morning, thinking that today is the day you are going to eat less and start losing weight. You are not hungry in the morning, so you skip breakfast. You go to work, and by lunchtime you do feel hungry, but you have small sandwich at desk. You congratulate yourself on your willpower. By 3 or 4 pm, that willpower is gone. You are hungry, cranky and fatigued and you are now craving for some unhealthy choices such as sweetened coffee or cheesy burger. After work, you are starving and exhausted. This is when the real trouble begins. You reach to whatever comes your way. Even after dinner, you cannot quit eating, when you feel full. Your blood glucose levels and insulin levels are spiking, but you crave something sweet. You continue to snack until bedtime. Unfortunately food consumed late in the day, won’t be digested. You may have acid reflux, congestion or intestinal cramping. So your sleep is less restful and you wake up feeling full from the night before. Starving yourself in the first half of the day and bingeing in the second half of the day will sabotage your weight management efforts.

Most of us have fallen into this pattern. We consume more than half of the calories we require after 4 pm. In one observational study, researchers found out that 50% of the participants consume 75% of the total calorie in afternoon and evening. They also found that people further delay meals on weekends, worsening the metabolic jet lag effect on the body. In the late afternoon and evening, the body is far less able to metabolize calories, sugar and fat. People think that skipping breakfast or lunch is saving calories for later, but this is not true. Your body is not a simple machine that consumes a set number of calories every 24 hrs. Your digestive tract has its own circadian rhythm. It is ready to go in the morning and burns most efficiently at noon. After 2pm, it is progressively more sluggish. People with slower metabolism or kapha prakriti who struggle to lose weight have almost no ability to digest any food in late evening.

Your body’s ability to handle a large infusion of calories means its glucose tolerance is higher in the morning. And insulin sensitivity is also cyclical which goes on decreasing as day passes. Your eating habits train your body to produce certain hormones associated with eating, including ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin is produced in the stomach and it is the only hormone the body makes to stimulate appetite. Whenever you eat, you are training your body to anticipate food at this time, and to make you hungry at the time when you normally eat. The hormone rises sharply before you eat and decreases after you eat for several hours. Leptin works the opposite way. It is released by your fat cells to tell the body that you have had enough to eat. Leptin levels low before you eat and rise sharply afterwards. Like insulin resistance, leptin resistance also developed in the body due to late night eating. You brain stops receiving leptin signals when you do not get enough sleep or when you eat at a time when your body would otherwise be sleeping.

To break this vicious cycle, we have to adopt time restricted eating, narrowing the window of food intake. You need to experiment a little to get used to eating less at night. You need to prepone dinner time in small steps. Initially you have a piece of fruit or milk late night to combat the habitual hunger. Remember, you have to train your brain to signal hunger at the right time, drinking hot water with lemon may be supportive in this effort.

I will recommend to find out your chronoprakriti from our website and maintain a sleep diary for a least one week to follow your sleep wake pattern. 

For more details do visit: www.chronoprakriti.com

Watch our YouTube Channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV4LHeYwP9kjDJH3_JJyvJg

What is Autorhythmometry

Most of the scientific progress is through the use of animal models because using humans as a model system has lots of limitation and ethical concerns. Chronobiology is too relied on various animal models to understand basic mechanisms of internal rhythmicity. Most of the animals follow natural rhythms and hence we could design experimental protocols to test a given hypothesis. But unfortunately humans is probably only animal who tend to defy the natural rhythms by creating situations such as 24x7 working society. Even at home we have technology at our service to mask the environmental cues such as change in temperature or light intensity. For example we have a heater or cooler to maintain the ambient temperature, we use artificial lights and extend the work hours at our own will.

The masking of environmental signals is not an old habit but very recent in terms of geological time scale. Humans are diurnal animal means they are supposed to work during day time and take rest during night time. All bodily activities are rhythmic. There is an optimal time to perform certain activity which is repeated with varied frequency. Observing and/or documenting our own rhythms is the first step in understanding the functioning of biological clock.

We tend to overlook the bodily rhythms and think that shifting the daily routine will have little effect on its functioning. Nature does not work in this manner that will be evident to you by observing any natural phenomenon and its frequency. Due to robust internal mechanism to regain the equilibrium called homeostasis, we manage the varied schedule which is more prominent during weekends in urban lifestyle. Consistent practice of circadian misalignment will be evident once the internal system became less efficient over the time and we are prone to lifestyle disorders.

Most of us are having issues with either metabolic, cardiac, neuronal or psychological functioning which could be addressed in the early stage by tuning of your internal time system without going for any medication. None of the medical practitioner will tell you this aspect of your disorder due to lack of understanding of internal clock mechanism.

I am going to tell you how to first observe the body rhythm and find out to what extent we have disturbed it. Next step would be how to fix it and regain the internal rhythm. Even though we can do all the activities at any given time of the day, body is not in position to perform it with same efficiency. You must have experienced it by eating at different time points and associated digestive problems.  Autorhythmometry is an experimental technique in classical chronobiology. The literal meaning is assessment of rhythmic behavior on self.

Body has its own way to provide signal if something is going wrong. None of the disease arises suddenly. There are lots of efforts by body to fight the pathogen before it is getting established in body such as corona virus or regaining the metabolic homeostasis before becoming diabetic to give you couple of examples. But we are not attentive to the body signals. We have forgotten to decipher the body language in the process of civilization. We may use the word in various context but actually we understand very little about the body language. Autorhythmometry is the way to become attentive to your body. Observing the daily rhythms, noting down the specific characteristics of body rhythm such as blood pressure, pulse rate, meal time, sleep time etc.

We may perform autorhythmometry of physiological or biochemical parameters for specific duration. There are many apps and gadgets are also available in the market for specific parameter. But even though the gadget is not available we may perform it with just paper and pencil by noting down the readings. I will discuss individual parameter one by one in subsequent article. 

For more details do visit: www.chronoprakriti.com

Watch our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV4LHeYwP9kjDJH3_JJyvJg

ChronoPrakriti exercise

Our diet, exercise and sleep-wake pattern are three important factors regulating biological clock which are also mentioned in Ayurved as Ahar, Vihar and Nidra respectively. We already had discussion on ahar and nidra. Today we will talk about vihar that is role of exercise in tuning of chronoprakriti. Light is the primary external signal for tuning of central biological clock present in the brain. But the peripheral clocks present in various organs are setting their rhythms primarily by food and exercise and not by light.

When people think about exercise, they usually think in terms of building muscle or losing weight as though it’s a punishment for bad eating habits. It is much more than that which has effect on your body beyond fat burning or muscle building. We all need exercise every day but we don’t need the same amount or the same level of exertion. The time and pattern of exercise differs depending upon your body type. Body does not understand whether it is a formal or informal exercise regimen. Any kind of movement, including a single step will be considered as exercise by the body.

The Sanskrit word for exercise is vyayama which means improving circulation and communication through specific movements. The body is considered as an interconnecting channels. Over the course of a single day, these channels get sticky or blocked due to metabolic activities. These blockages can be removed by vital energy which we get from deep breathing. Exercise is essentially to pump the vital energy through all the channels by deep breathing. It is a kind of cleansing mechanism.

Altered circadian rhythmicity in skeletal muscle is a cause of concern in our sedentary lifestyle. This impacts reduced glucose tolerance and changes in mus­cle functioning and composition. These have a significant correlation with conditions such as diabetes, cardiovas­cular disease, and cancer. Hormonal regulation and resynchronization of the circadian clock as a result of aerobic exercise have each been linked to improved sleep quality, lower heart rate, and lower blood pressure. Skeletal muscle and bone have roles in not only the regulation of locomotion and postural support but also the control of nutritional homeostasis, such as maintaining glucose and calcium levels.

The phase of expression of many rhythmic genes in skeletal muscle occurs at the mid-point of the subjective active phase. Scheduled exercise can entrain the circadian clocks in skeletal muscles i.e. the phase of rhythmic gene expression in skeletal muscle may be regulated by the rhythm of locomotor activity. Individual sleep patterns can also impact the optimal timing of exercise. Sleep duration and onset time depend on the chronoprakriti type.

In our urban lifestyle, we are indoors for most of the time and even prefer gym schedule in the evening after hectic daily activities as a mean for relaxation. Morning outdoor activity is essential for our body which gives strong signal that the day has started and sets the circadian rhythm necessary for regulating sleep-wake pattern. Additionally when you exercise before first meal of the day, less sugar is available in the circulation and body is forced to tap into fat reserves. Late evening intense exercise on the other hand make you alert and overheated for the sleep by suppressing the melatonin secretion. It confuses the body’s circadian rhythm and interferes in sleep-wake cycle.

It is hard for most of the people to start and stick to an exercise routine. The trick is to introduce variation and not worrying about amount of exercise. It may be less than the previous day but performed at the same time. Moderation is the key in anything you do for sustainable goals and exercise is no exception to it. We will talk separately about sports chronobiology where you need intense workouts for specific goals but for average individual variety of exercise regimen which allows deep breathing is sufficient for tuning of muscle clock.

All professionals directly or indirectly involved in health or wellness do concerned with the change in eating habits or lack of exercise or importance of sleep and recommend you healthy habits so as to handle lifestyle disorders. But have you heard anyone talking about internal clock? Very few of them are even aware about it. They will tell you what to do or what not to do, similarly how to do or how not to do. But none of them emphasis on when to do or when not do.

If my body requires certain amount of calories, I may eat at any time of day and fulfil the requirement. If my body requires certain amount of exercise, I can do it even just before going to bed. If I am short of sleep hours during weekdays, I may recover it by sleeping more on weekends! All these practices making us more vulnerable for lifestyle disorders and all of us are blissfully unaware about it.

Whatever we do in our daily schedule, it has to be aimed at tuning our internal clock. The clock is the natural mechanism to prepare the body for specific task, may be it is mental or physical. Frequent change in time in routine activities confuses the inner mechanism and body has to spend excess energy to compensate the change. For example, you are sleeping two hours late on every weekend as compared to weekday is nothing but a kind of jet lag your body is experiencing and all of us are aware about body response when we travel to different time zone.

This internal clock though dependent on diet, exercise and sleep, does not work same for all individuals. The external manifestation of inner clock is the natural preferences for given activity or variation in peak performance time. Some people may be comfortable in working earlier part of the day and some other may be later part of the day. For such tendencies we call morning person or evening person in lay man’s term to which the technical term is chronotype. Ayurved too insists on personalized medicine based on the prakriti types. These types are nothing but a variation in inner clock mechanism. Hence we are combining the two body types so as to assess the chronoprakriti of an individual.

Let’s talk about exercise regimen according to your chronoprakriti. Based on whether you are morning or evening person, your muscle coordination will vary. Irrespective of that, morning exercise in natural settings is recommended for all which will send strong signal to brain about the start of day. If you are looking for specific weight gain or loss or muscle building through exercise, then along with morning workout, you need to follow additional work out regimens which will be based on your chronoprakriti type.

According to seasons, doshas show three types of response – 1) Accumulation of dosha 2) Aggravation of dosha and 3) Decrease of dosha. As per the season and your prevalent prakriti condition we need to select the type of exercise. Vata people benefit from slow and steady strength training, Pitta people need training to calm and cool down whereas Kapha people benefited by heated sweaty sessions. Based on the season and your dosha type you need to vary the type of exercise.

The exercise regimen may change as you age. The body requirements will be different depending upon your profession. Similarly women may require different set of body movements as those of men. All these considerations will make your personalized exercise format which will tune the muscle clock. The clock present in the skeletal muscles retains its rhythmicity by scheduled body movements. And this peripheral clock is not merely responsible for regulation of locomotion and postural support but also the control of nutritional homeostasis, such as maintaining glucose and calcium levels.

How much exercise do I need? This is a tough question. My personal opinion is unless you are very much keen in muscle building or getting train for specific sports activity that does not matter. The time and type of exercise matter more than the amount of exercise to tune your internal clock. The take home message is regular exercise is as necessary as your diet and both together will help you to tune your peripheral clocks. I will recommend to find out your chronoprakriti from our website for getting personalized recommendations for your peak performance period. 

For more details do visit: www.chronoprakriti.com

Watch our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV4LHeYwP9kjDJH3_JJyvJg

ChronoPrakriti Light

Our diet, exercise and sleep-wake pattern are three important factors regulating biological clock which are also mentioned in Ayurved as Ahar, Vihar and Nidra respectively. Today we will talk about sleep wake pattern or effect of light.

Light is the major external signal that sets our internal clock. The solar 24-hour cycle has existed for more than 4 billion years, and it has led to the evolution of circadian rhythms in most organisms. Environmental light is the strongest synchronizer for the circadian system, and phase-resetting capacities to light mainly depend on time of day, light intensity, and spectral composition. We spend most of the time in artificial light either at home or at office which has light intensity in the range of 300 – 500 lux whereas the day light intensity during clear sky is between 50,000 – 1,00,000 lux. Light exerts acute effects on subjective alertness and cognitive performance, and it inhibits the secretion of melatonin or sleep hormone by the pineal gland.

Acute light effects are dependent on the photo-pigment melanopsin which is present in the retina of eye and are stronger when light contains a greater proportion of blue light. Limited exposure to sufficient natural light disturbs the natural rhythm of melatonin and cortisol secretion which affects our majority of the bodily activities.

Chronobiological knowledge of how light affects human behavior has begun to be implemented at work places, in schools and in clinical environments. There are still strong experimental evidences required to test, predict and apply optimal lighting conditions for different populations and patients, in terms of spectral composition, light intensity, and dynamics. Also, geographical latitude, building exposure, and building properties play an important role.

Artificial light sources are widely used in our everyday lives to illuminate streets and our homes. There has been a change to use more energy efficient technologies such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) and an increase in the use of digital screens. Artificial lights can vary widely in their brightness and colour composition, including how much blue light they emit. These properties, together with the timing and duration of their use, can alter how these light sources may affect health and the environment.

Despite the multitude of studies investigating light effects on humans, it is still unclear how much light is needed during daytime to stay fully entrained to the environmental light-dark cycle. This becomes an important topic in our round-the-clock society, since the time we spend outside during the day progressively decreases, whereas the time we spend with light-emitting devices during the night increases.

Humans have evolved to use daylight and darkness to regulate circadian rhythms, which is important for our health and wellbeing. Increasing exposure to natural daylight, particularly in the morning, can help synchronise the body clock with the solar day. Limiting the amount of light at night is also important for circadian health.

Advances in lighting technology have provided possible ways of reducing adverse lighting effects and enhancing other desired effects. Compared with earlier lighting technologies, LEDs provide precise optical control and more opportunity to change and tune their spectral distribution, allowing lighting designers to reduce obtrusive effects from light scattering into unintended areas.

Effect of light on our body is dependent on the Ayurvedic dosha which constitute your Prakriti. Doshas vary during 24 hours cycle and finding out individual Prakriti would be beneficial to understand the sleep wake pattern. Vata people has superficial sleep and can be disturbed easily as compared to Kapha people who spend more time in deep Non-REM sleep as compared to two other types of Prakriti. Pitta people are also light sleepers but can fall back asleep easily if disturbed during the sleep. Sleep requirements may vary based on your Prakriti type along with other parameters.

I will recommend to find out your chronoprakriti from our website and maintain a sleep diary for a least one week to follow your sleep wake pattern. 

For more details do visit: www.chronoprakriti.com

Watch our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV4LHeYwP9kjDJH3_JJyvJg

ChronoPrakriti Diet

Our diet, exercise and sleep-wake pattern are three important factors regulating biological clock which are also mentioned in Ayurved as Ahar, Vihar and Nidra respectively. Today we will talk about diet or Ahar. There are various diet plans available in the market and we try them randomly which may work in the beginning or may work only for certain duration only. I am going to tell you about the Chronoprakriti diet plan which is not just another diet plan but altogether different approach of weight management.

Here, I am going to tell you the basis of diet regimen which is not focusing on how many calories to eat but more concerned about when to eat those required calories. If you ask any dietician or physician about Chronoprakriti diet plan they will simply reject it out of ignorance. Even though a lay person is aware about importance of doing thing at appropriate time, scientifically it is still not validated why an appropriate time of doing everything matters.

Fortunately, experimental data is also coming up to support this age old notion of doing right things at right time. A laboratory mice feed with high calorie diet during night time is not gaining weight but become obese if it is provided during the day time. As mice is a nocturnal animal, night time is the natural activity time and food intake during activity time is not adding any fat deposition. If we take clue from this experiment then we can understand that for humans, day time calorie intake associated with physical activity will not add any weight gain.

Chronoprakriti diet recommends to have 5 hours gap between two day time meals and 12 hours gap between dinner and breakfast. There should not be any snacking in between and only water may be allowed during the gap. This five hours gap will ensure that the metabolic clock will be synchronized to their daily rhythm and 12 hours gap will ensure that the gut microbiome will be sufficiently rested and rejuvenated for next cycle. This three meal pattern at consistent time of the day is recommended to tune your chronoprakriti.

Chronoprakriti diet plan will become personalized based on your chronoprakriti assessment. Your prakriti will decide which type of food you should prefer or avoid depending upon your age, season, geographical location and prevalent health condition. Your chronotype will decide whether you should have large breakfast or large lunch or large dinner.

Seasonal and local food products induces changes in the metabolism due to the particular phenolic profile that the product contains hence the Chronoprakriti diet insists on seasonal and local variety of food products in your diet.

Even though we stick to this diet plan for weekdays and change it for weekends then body will experience what is called ‘metabolic jet lag’ Even without travelling to different time zone, your gut microbiome will experience the change in food intake that will disturb their rhythm and it will be take time to regain it.

So we should have consistent food timing on all days as much as possible. If it happens that due to social obligations, there is a change in meal pattern, it is recommended to fast next day to readjust the metabolic clock. Weekly fasting is highly recommended to keep your metabolic clock healthy.

Our body is not made for 24x7 food intake. Due to availability of processed food round the clock our eating window is almost equivalent to our waking hours and that is creating all types of health issues. Our aim should be finishing a food intake in specific time span which should be less than 12 hours. If we could keep our digestive tract empty for at least 13-14 hrs then our peripheral clocks can tune themselves easily and help process excess nutrients properly by the body.

For more details do visit: www.chronoprakriti.com

Watch our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV4LHeYwP9kjDJH3_JJyvJg

Chronoprakriti

A Word Chronoprakriti is a combination of two roots, viz chronotype and Prakriti type. We all know what is Prakriti but very few us are aware about what is chronotype.

So let us first understand what us chronotype and then we discuss its correlation with Prakriti.

Man is evolved on the revolving planet Earth just like any other creature and is bound to the natural laws alike. Major geophysical cycles such as day/night or ebb/tide are repeating with known periodicities has conditioned all living entities to evolve a mechanism called biological clock to adapt the environmental changes. Physical clock helps us to follow the social schedule whereas the biological clock prepares our body by anticipating the changes in the external and internal environment.

Individual variation in functioning of biological clock is exhibited in the form chronotype. It refers to the idea that there are individual differences in the time of day in which people perform at their peak. In the common vernacular, terms such as "morning person" or "early bird" versus "night person" or "night owl" are reflections of the extreme ends of chronotype. In biological terms, chronotype refers to the individual difference in preferred timing of sleep and wakeful activity. Both genetic variations and environmental factors influence the distribution of chronotypes in a given population. You may find out your own chronotype with the help of our chronotype questionnaire. There are various other options available to find out your chronotype such as sleep analysis or clock gene analysis.

Research has linked chronotype to performance on cognitive tasks in academic and workplace settings. Studies consistently find that those asked to perform tasks at times that are misaligned with their chronotype show poorer performance than those who perform tasks at more optimal times of the day. Chronotype analysis will help in various fields such as sports or education or specific professions such as round the clock service industry for performance optimization. More our society will lead to 24x7 lifestyle more will be relevance of chronotype based physical or mental activity in profession or education.

The science studying the mechanism of biological clock is called Chronobiology. Chronobiological research is focused on studying the mechanism of biological clock. As per the latest understanding, biological clock is regulated by natural light, physical activity and time of food intake. Unfortunately, all the three parameters are completely disturbed in course of urbanization.

Ayurved believes that everything in nature including humans are made up of five basic elements. Hence there is similarity at many levels between nature and man which is called ‘Loka-Purush Samya Siddhanta’ Ayurved recommends daily as well as seasonal variations based on the changes in the surrounding nature which are called ‘Dinacharya’ and ‘Rutucharya’ respectively.

According to Ayurvedic concepts, body is made up of three types of Doshas, viz. Vata, Pitta, Kapha. Balancing between Doshas leads to health whereas the imbalance leads to disease condition. At different times in a given day, during specific seasons of the year as well as at given age the balance between Tridosha is in constant flux.  Balancing of Doshas are possible with ‘Dinacharya’ and ‘Rutucharya’, which will lead to syncing of the inner biological clock. Thus, the lifestyle disorders could be managed with changes in the lifestyle and not with mere medications. 

Prakriti is one of the basic concepts in Ayurved. As individual Prakriti is unique, the same Ayurvedic formulation is not recommended to all. Ayurvedic medication not meant to supress the disease but to act at the root cause considering the psychosomatic aspect. Hence there are more dos and don’ts as compared to modern medicine.  

According to Chronobiology each person has a unique ‘Chrono Type’ whereas according to Ayurved each person has a unique ‘Prakriti Type’ Modern science is restricted only to the physical body whereas body and mind both are considered in Ayurved. Majority of the lifestyle disorders such as diabetes, hypertension, anxiety or depression are not caused by any specific reason & linked to circadian dysfunction. 

As we are aware about Vata dominant, Pitta dominant, Kapha dominant or their combinations of Prakriti types, Chrono type are divided into three types viz. Morning, Intermediate and Evening type or their combinations. Due to our round-the-clock urban lifestyle, a morning person has to work in the evening which leads to misalignment inside the body. Though we cannot change our professional assignments suddenly, at least awareness about the mechanism of biological clock will help us to monitor the daily schedule and make step by step changes in the right direction. 

Human mind and brain both are evolved mechanism and much more manipulative hence it will not be enough to tackle it only at physical level but need more holistic approach. Combining the concepts in Chronobiology and Ayurved, we are proposing a novel concept of ‘ChronoPrakriti’. The lifestyle management will be more effective and sustainable if we suggest the recommendations based on individual ‘ChronoPrakriti’. 

For more details do visit: www.chronoprakriti.com

Watch our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV4LHeYwP9kjDJH3_JJyvJg

Insomnia and Diabetes

In this study of more than 336,999 United Kingdom adults, researchers utilized a technique called Mendelian Randomization to genetically group people according to a code said to be randomly assigned at birth. The researchers looked at five sleep measures – chronotype, napping habits, degree of daytime sleepiness, duration of nighttime sleep and insomnia – and compared those measures to average blood sugar levels in the individual study subjects.

The researchers found that people with sleep problems, such as difficulty in falling asleep, trouble staying asleep or insomnia, tended to have higher blood sugar levels than those who typically didn’t experience sleep problems. High blood sugar is disruptive to the metabolism and dangerous to health, with chronic high blood sugar typically leading to a pre-diabetic state or the development of type 2 diabetes. While there are multiple factors at play in determining type 2 diabetes risk, including weight, diet and physical activity levels, it makes sense to control what you can and, as demonstrated by this recent study, sleep quality appears to be one of those blood-sugar-increasing factors.

https://www.chronobiology.com/insomnia-boosts-diabetes-risk-raises-blood-sugar-levels/

Chronoprakriti

 A much awaited launch of www.chronoprakriti.com is scheduled on Sunday 17-04-2022 at 5 pm

Details of the program will be updated soon.....

The program was well received, Check the You tube link: https://youtu.be/TzufwEtta_4

Science day 28-02-2022

A textbook on chronobiology and a marathi booklet on chronoprakriti was released by hands of Prof. Dr. Bhushan Patwardhan during the valedictory function of science week at SP college, Pune. 

The program can be viewed at following link: https://youtu.be/jpiSfvoboXc

Diurnal Variation in SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Test Results

False negative tests for SARS-CoV-2 are common and have important public health and medical implications. We tested the hypothesis of diurnal variation in viral shedding by assessing the proportion of positive versus negative SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests and cycle time (Ct) values among positive samples by the time of day. Among 86,342 clinical tests performed among symptomatic and asymptomatic patients in a regional health care network in the southeastern United States from March to August 2020, we found evidence for diurnal variation in the proportion of positive SARS-CoV-2 tests, with a peak around 1400 h and 1.7-fold variation over the day after adjustment for age, sex, race, testing location, month, and day of week and lower Ct values during the day for positive samples. These findings have important implications for public health testing and vaccination strategies.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34696614/