Your Biological Clock as a Health Risk Factor
QHHL 
Jul 26 2018
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0 QHHL
Your body is a complicated system. It’s made up of numerous systems and organs and is governed by patterns and rhythms that medicine is just starting to understand. The circadian rhythm is one of the most influential and important forces in your body. It not only governs your sleep and wake system. It may also affect any medical treatment you receive for better or for worse. That’s why you need to understand more about this health risk factor. With deeper understanding, you can make monitoring it a part of your regular health assessment activities.
What is the Circadian Rhythm? Your Circadian rhythm determines your sleep and wake cycle. It consists of biological and behavioural patterns that follow a 24 hour cycle. Almost every living thing on this planet shows signs of following a circadian rhythm, from plants to insects and bacteria to people. The molecular mechanisms that control the circadian rhythm were only recently discovered by scientists who were given a Nobel Prize for this work in 2017. These discoveries led to the realization that the rhythm is determined by specific genes. These genes instruct cells to make the proteins that run their internal clocks. The brain is basically the master clock, and it keeps all of these tiny clocks running in sync.
As you would expect, this means that your biological clock is closely linked to every system in your body. This is especially true of your cardiovascular system, which is why your heart rate and blood pressure vary depending on the time of day. Your circadian patterns are also a major health risk factor for certain cardiovascular diseases as well. Studies have shown that the onset of diseases such as heart attack, stroke and arrhythmia also follow the circadian patterns. And disrupting these natural rhythms can be a risk factor for these diseases as well.
Because the circadian rhythm is so linked to the health of your body, it makes sense that it also affects medical treatments as well. One example of how the circadian rhythm can be used to increase the effectiveness of medical treatment comes from a recent study on Atherosclerosis. This is an arterial disease where fatty tissue is deposited on the walls of the arteries. If left untreated it can lead to heart disease and even heart attack.
When you have Atherosclerosis, it causes a buildup of immune cells at the site. These cells try to help to fight the plaque, but eventually their repair efforts break down. When this occurs, inflammation sets in. In a recent study, researchers found that the number of immune cells at the site increased three fold at certain times of the day. This pattern followed the circadian rhythm, and occurred 12 hours out of phase with the movement of immune cells needed for infection. This makes the timing of medications for Atherosclerosis extremely important. These drugs attempt to stop or slow the action of immune cells at the arteries so inflammation doesn’t occur. However, a serious issue with these drugs is that they also stop other immune cells from activating. This can lead to dangerous infections. But by timing the treatments according to the circadian rhythm, this problem can be avoided. The treatments can be given at a time that stops immune cell buildup at peak times without interfering with infection cells.
This is just one example of the importance of the circadian rhythm to your health and wellbeing. Which is why monitoring your personal rhythm must be an important part of your health assessment activities.
The key to using your circadian rhythm to safeguard your health is to understand your personal biological clock. Everyone’s rhythm is different, which means that you need to monitor your vitals to discover your own personal patterns. Taking your blood pressure and heart rate at intervals throughout the day will give you a good idea of how your patterns work. Obviously, undergoing medical monitoring is more accurate, but taking this route is costly and time consuming. By performing health assessment activities at home you can determine these patterns with reasonable degree of accuracy.
The benefits of doing this are obvious. With this information you can modify your medical treatments according to your circadian profile. This will allow you to enjoy the best benefits from your treatments. You can also reorganize your lifestyle so you take advantage of the rhythms for better sleep and greater productivity. And once you understand your natural rhythms, any changes will be very obvious. This is important because changes to this rhythm can signal future health concerns. Specific diseases as well as overall ill health can both cause changes to this rhythm, which is why it’s so important that you monitor this health risk factor.
If you are at higher risk of heart disease, you might consider using tools such as HomeLab to keep track of your condition and any preventative measures you take. And if you see signs of a significant problem, you should check with your doctor as soon as possible.
Tags: Health risk, Circadian, health risk assessment, biological clock