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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : October 17, 2014 4:49 PM IST
Travel too often over continents? You could be adding kilos to your body. According to researchers, disruption of the circadian clock alters the rhythms and composition of the microbial community in the gut, leading to obesity and metabolic problems. 'The findings suggest that people with chronically disturbed day-night cycles due to repetitive jet lag or shift work have a tendency to develop obesity and other metabolic complications,' said senior study author Eran Elinav from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
In the study, Elinav and his team discovered rhythmic fluctuations in abundance of microbes and their biological activities at different time of the day. When mice were exposed to changing light-dark schedules and abnormal 24 hour feeding habits, the microbial community lost its rhythmic fluctuations and changed in composition. (Read: Feeling jet-lagged? Blame it on your genes)
Moreover, a high-fat diet caused these jet-lagged mice to gain weight and develop metabolic problems associated with diabetes. 'Similarly, jet lag in two people who have travelled from the US to Israel changed the composition of gut microbes, favouring the growth of bacteria that have been linked to obesity and metabolic disease,' Elinav claimed. (Read: A new mechanism could help beat effects of jet lag)
The findings highlight a new therapeutic target that may be exploited in future studies to normalise the microbiota in people whose lifestyle involves frequent alterations in sleep patterns, such as shift workers and very frequent fliers. 'Targeting the harmful changes in the microbiota in these large human population with probiotic or antimicrobial therapies may reduce or even prevent their risk of developing obesity and its complications,' Elinav concluded. (Read: Coming soon a cure for jet lag!)
The study was published in the journal Cell.
What is jet lag?
Jet lag is a temporary sleep disorder caused when someone travels across two or more time zones rapidly. The main reason for its occurrence is that it throws our normal functions out of sync. While travelling across a number of time zones the body clock experiences changes to what its accustomed to, like routine changes in daylight and darkness resulting in disturbances in eating, sleeping, hormone variation and routine body temperature variation.
How to deal with jet lag?
While it s impossible to avoid jet lag, there are ways to hasten the recovery process. Here are some tips:
With inputs from IANS
Photo source: Getty images
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