Shifting work hours and crossing different time zones can be an uncomfortable experience. You would have to deal with extreme tiredness and even headache when you force yourself to wake up at a time when you normally sleep. Studies also suggest that disrupting your body clock can have negative consequences on your health such that it raises your risks of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
Woes associated with resetting the body clock, however, may end soon as scientists have found a promising solution that can eliminate the inconveniences of jet lag and ease the stress associated with working on graveyard shift.
Researchers at the Manchester University who conducted a test on mice have found that mice that lack the enzyme called CK1epsilon, could adjust to new light-dark cycles more easily. They also found that mice that were given drugs to counter the enzyme also adapted to cycle changes more easily.
"By tackling this enzyme we can wind the body clock back or forwards, we can modulate the clock," said study lead researcher David Bechtold of the University of Manchester. "So jet lag could be eliminated by using inhibitors on the family of enzymes which sets the speed of the clock."
Bechtold said that their study "A Novel Mechanism Controlling Resetting Speed of the Circadian Clock to Environmental Stimuli" published in the Current Biology journal March 20, could pave way to the invention of a pill that could ease the changes that disrupt the body's natural clock.
"This development opens a line of work which could very realistically lead to human treatment," Bechtold said. "Within five to ten years the availability of drugs which can be used to target the body clock in people will start to become a reality."
Bechtold also said that the study could lead to discoveries that could help humans better adapt to body clock changes, which studies associate with a number of health implications.
"It is now becoming clear that clock disruption is increasing the incidence and severity of diseases including obesity and diabetes. We are not genetically predisposed to quickly adapt to shift work or long-haul flights, and so our bodies' clocks are built to resist such rapid changes," Bechtold said. "As this work progresses in clinical terms, we may be able to enhance the clock's ability to deal with shift work, and importantly understand how maladaptation of the clock contributes to diseases such as diabetes and chronic inflammation."
