Referential image. Each person has their own habits, and you have to study them individually to understand when they work best Photo: Freepik
Several scientific studies have determined that knowing the biological calendars of people helps to understand when a body works better and what time if you choose to have sex, study or exercise.
The discipline that studies the relationship between time and the biological rhythms of people is called chronobiology. Specialists point out that knowing the biological calendar of an individual allows, to cite a few examples, that the patient responds better to a drug, to exercise or to the absorption of a certain nutrient.
Although each person has their own habits, and they must be studied individually, in any case the passing of the hours of the day (24 hour circadian rhythm) generates changes in the various mechanisms available to the body to regulate its functioning.
Importance
Fernando Botto, chief cardiologist of the research area of the Cardiovascular Institute of Buenos Aires, explains that circadian rhythms compromise all the mechanisms that the organism has organized to survive in its healthy functioning. “When we sleep, we accumulate glucose, triglycerides y nutrients in the tissues.
And when you wake up, the body activates and, among other things, increases the pressure and heart rate. Circadian rhythms are regulated by the brain with the autonomic nervous system, which is what opens the pupils or generates saliva, for example. I mean, we don’t control it,” says Botto.
The study of chronobiology, according to Daniel Cardinali, professor emeritus at the Buenos Aires’ University, it’s of vital importance. Knowing the biological calendar of each individual, she says, helps to understand the precise moment in which he can best respond to a treatment, such as a cancer therapyor determine when the toxicity of a drug can be minimized and its efficacy increased.
We have put together a guide on the impact of circadian rhythms heart, brain and food. Although specialists point out that, although general recommendations can be given, each case must be analyzed in a particular way.
In the morning and exercise
When a person wakes up, Botto describes, there is usually an increase in blood pressure and heart rate.
“That’s because the autonomic nervous system releases chemicals like cortisol and adrenaline. It also increases the level of glucose and insulin in the blood. This activation is physiological and depends on the “internal clocks” that prepare the body to start the day, but for vulnerable people, with poorly controlled risk factors (eg high cholesterol, high blood pressure, overweight), is a good scenario to suffer a heart attack or stroke.
Therefore, the highest incidence of heart attacks occurs between 6:00 and 10:00 in the morning. When someone is said to have died in their sleep, it is possible that they woke up at dawn and that the physical reaction generated by waking up contributed to the death.
As for the exercisealthough it is recommendable doing it at any time of the day, Botto says that the optimal thing is to train in the morning. “Aerobic exercise is healthy at all times, but it seems that in the morning it adapts better to internal rhythms, because many metabolic mechanisms to produce energy. The cardiovascular benefits would be greater. Also, it would be better to consume the most calories in the morning and not at night, as usual.
Regarding the time to take antihypertensives, the expert indicates that some specialists recommend using them in the morning so that the drug has its peak of action at the time of greatest cardiovascular risk. However, Botto points out that there is some debate on this and there is no definitive recommendation. Each doctor decides with his patient, in a personalized way.
At night, the pressure should drop between 10 and 20%. If not, this is an example of a circadian rhythm disturbance, which increases the risk of a heart attack.
sexual energy
Regarding sexual energy, Cardinali describes that “the variability of sexual desire in men is related to testosterone levels, whose peak occurs in the second half of sleep.
Therefore, the morning should be the time of greatest sexual desire. In the case of women, libido is linked to another chronobiological aspect, which are not the hours of the day, but the menstrual cycle. Desire increases in the periovulatory stage (middle of the menstrual cycle) and in the premenstrual moment.
When it comes to nutrition, Monica Katz, founder of the Durand Hospital eating disorders team and author of The No Diet Method, believes that nutritional science could lead to new ways to address metabolic health and obesity through implementation of dietary guidelines directed at meal time.
Breakfast, he says, is considered beneficial, despite the fact that many people practice what is called intermittent fasting. According to Katz, breakfast can boost energy, focus, memory, and problem-solving skills.
It also improves metabolism, digestion, and bone strength, and helps reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and obesity. “A recent meta-analysis showed an association between evening energy intake and higher average body mass index. Obese people consume most of their calories in the evening and night period, compared to thin people. Calorie intake in the morning resulted in 5.1 kg greater weight loss than calorie intake in the evening. Additionally, higher calorie intake in the morning increases satiety, improves blood sugar, insulin, triglycerides, and decreases hunger,” she says.
On the other hand, whether or not there is breakfast, there are those who defend intermittent fasting. “In my experience,” adds Katz, “intermittent fasting is safe for some people. For others, especially with a history of Eating disorders and altered body image, can represent a dangerous path towards unhealthy restrictive eating patterns.
The afternoon
López points out that there is another “stage” during the sleep-wake cycle that usually occurs around 2:00 p.m. “It is usual that at this time we notice that sleep also increases. It not only has to do with having eaten or not, but with the breakdown of the mechanisms responsible for maintaining alertness.
In this sense, the circadian rhythm process coexists with the digestion process, through which information reaches the Central Nervous System of the digestive apparatus and by the vagus nerve, which inhibits the alert mechanisms of our organism”.
Studies indicate that those who work at night, even sleeping the recommended hours, do not recover in the same way as those who sleep at night.
When is there a greater brain predisposition to learn and create? One of the aspects to take into account when referring to the level of activity is that of the chronotypes, which can be defined as the predisposition of each person to have peaks of energy and rest.
“There are people who usually prefer morning schedules (morning schedule or larks) and others night hours (late chronotype, commonly called owls). However, most do not fall into either of these two extremes and have an intermediate chronotype,” says López.
As for the heart, the afternoon begins the fall of the action of the morning. Lowers heart rate and blood pressure. The so-called anabolism begins, which is the process by which they begin to generate fat deposits. None of this implies, Botto warns, that there are no heart attacks in the afternoon, but the percentage is generally lower than in the morning.
Katz, for his part, points out that it has not been studied that a person has to wait a certain number of hours after lunch to eat again. “But it’s appropriate. compulsive people with a history of memory of hunger, who eat more frequently. Everything will depend on the eating behavior profile of each one.
The night
“Overnight the pressure should drop by 10-20%. If not, this is an example of circadian rhythm disruption. When, for any reason, these rhythms are disturbed, the heart attack risk. Therefore, people who work at night may have a greater tendency to diabetes, obesity, cognitive impairment and cardiovascular risk”, says Botto.
How many hours do you plan to sleep? In the case of adults, the recommendation is to sleep between 6 and 8 hours a day. However, there is great variability between people with respect to hours they need to sleep. One aspect that influences is the stability of the calendar. Sleeping eight hours on a regular schedule is not the same as sleeping the same hours at different times of the day.
“Our body is designed to sleep at night and be awake during the day. However, for different reasons, some people are awake at night and asleep during the day. These people require extra effort to stay awake during activity by going Contrary to our physiology. Some studies even indicate that those who work at night, even sleeping the recommended hours, do not recover in the same way as those who sleep at night”, says López.
When it comes to eating at night, Katz says, “Night workers are predisposed to weight gain and metabolic disorders. Although there is no specific time, the data points At 7:00 p.m as the limit of optimal health. Which is related to the biological clock.
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