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.
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