TMHS 746: How Time Controls Your Brain, Body, & Health - With Dr. Amy Shah
The Model Health Show
Impact of Circadian Rhythm on Health and Hormones
Our culture's disregard for understanding what health truly looks like leads to shock when realizing the impact of disrupted circadian rhythms. Shift work is associated with a 30% greater incidence of breast cancer, higher rates of insulin resistance, obesity, and other health issues. Melatonin, typically known as a sleep hormone, also plays a crucial role in anti-cancer activities in the body. Disrupting the circadian rhythm can throw off the function of melatonin, contributing to fatigue, emphasizing the need to address hormonal health to combat fatigue.
For hundreds of years, humans naturally fasted during the nighttime hours. Our bodies function in accordance with the circadian rhythm in every way, including our hormones, digestion, neurotransmitters, and so much more. But in our modern society, we have access to food, light, and technology around the clock. We’ve lost touch with an essential pattern that our genes have come to expect.
On this compilation episode of The Model Health Show, you’re going to hear the best moments from my past interviews with the amazing Dr. Amy Shah. She is a double-board certified physician who specializes in circadian medicine, fasting, and gut health. You’re going to learn about how your circadian timing system works, how it influences your genes, hormones, brain, and overall health.
You’ll hear powerful insights on how to optimize your health through aligning with the circadian rhythm. Understanding this information can help boost your energy levels, reduce your risk for diseases, improve your body composition, and so much more. So click play, listen in, and enjoy the show!
In this episode you’ll discover:
- What the suprachiasmatic nucleus is, and how it works.
- The percentage of our genes that have a circadian rhythm.
- Why constant light exposure can damage your cells.
- The problem with daylight saving time.
- How overnight fasting can improve rates of cancer and metabolic disease.
- Why your body is more sensitive to light cues at night.
- The importance of getting exposure to natural light during the day.
- What circadian fasting is, and how to do it right.
- The definition of metabolic switch and how to activate it.
- How circadian patterns influence our gut bacteria.
- Why your clock genes need natural light for optimal function.
- The connection between obesity and circadian rhythms.
- Why eating late at night disrupts your body’s natural patterns.
- Dr. Shah’s morning routine.
- What chrononutrition is.
- How your hunger hormones work.
- The connection between your gut health and mental health.
- How simply getting more sunlight can help you stay satiated.
Items mentioned in this episode include:
- Ettitude.com/model -- Use the coupon code model15 for 15% off organic bedding!
- DrinkLMNT.com/model -- Get a FREE sample pack with any order!
- Circadian Medicine & Circadian Fasting with Dr. Amy Shah – Episode 468
- How Gut Health Influences Mental Health with Dr. Amy Shah – Episode 574
- How Ultra-Processed Foods Are Hijacking the Brain with Dr. Amy Shah – Episode 665
- Evening Routines That Enhance Sleep & Supercharge Your Brain – Episode 216
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This episode is brought to you by Ettitude. One of the primary influential factors on the circadian clocks and being in alignment with that has a lot to do with our sleep quality and adhering to certain practices that support healthy sleep. Now, if we're living in natural conditions, there's going to be a natural drop in our core body temperature at night as we shift from day to evening, no matter where we are on the planet, no matter how cold it is during the day or how it is during the day, it's going to be cooler in the evening. And our bodies evolved to drop in temperature along with that. And this activates certain hormones, neurotransmitters, certain enzymes that support our sleep quality. But today, again, living in abnormal conditions and a lot of times fighting with our biology by doing certain things, we can cause a disruption to this. And a growing data of body has shown that insomniacs and this is folks who have clinically diagnosed chronic sleep issues, they tend to have a significantly warmer core body temperature than normal right before bed. To help combat this, a study was published in the peer-reviewed journal, Brain, and the scientists had these folks with sleep struggles to wear these thermo suits that lowered their skin temperature less than 1°C to measure its impact on their sleep quality. The study results show that participants didn't wake up as much during the night and their amount of time spent in stages three and four, deep sleep had actually increased. Now, we don't need to get a thermal body suit to sleep at night to support this. This is something we could simply do by addressing our bedding and not having bedding that overheats our bodies. In a recent study, this was a three-week clinical trial, looked at folks using conventional sheets, just the regular run-of-the-mill cotton sheets, and this was a randomized trial. Other participants were sleeping on organic bamboo lyocell sheets from Ettitude. At the end of the study period, the researchers found subjectively and objectively study participants were sleeping much better and feeling better sleeping on organic bamboo lyocell sheets. The study found objectively using sleep tracking technology, study participants had a 1.5% improvement in sleep efficiency, meaning they're going through their sleep cycles more efficiently and getting more from the time that they're actually asleep. Now that might not sound like a lot. That's about 7-8 more minutes of restorative sleep per night. But you add that up, that's about 43 extra hours of sleep per year with the same amount of time in bed. Incredible. Subjectively, participants found that their mental alertness during the day improved upwards of 25% and 94% of people preferred sleeping on ettitude sheets. These are the only sheets that I've been sleeping on for years unless I'm traveling. It is a true lovely, I can't even put into words, experience. You have to try it for yourself. Sleeping into ettitude sheets is like nothing else. I didn't know that it could feel that good slipping into bed. Now these sheets are antimicrobial, self-deodorizing, they're breathable, moisture-wicking, and they support natural thermal regulation. Get yourself this incredible gift of wellness. This is a great time to get a gift for somebody that you care about. Give them this gift. This is going to knock their socks off. It's a gift that is truly unique and it's going to feel good. They're just going to be raving about it when they actually sleep on these sheets. And also this is a good gift to give for yourself as well during this time of year. Go to ettitude.com/model. Use the code MODEL15 at checkout and you're going to get 15% off. That's ettitude.com/mode. Again, you get 15% off plus they have a 30-night sleep trial. You get to sleep on them, think on them, dream on them. If you don't absolutely love them, you can send them back for a full refund. Go to ettitude.com/model today.
This episode is brought to you by LMNT. All of these different cellular structures, whether it's the supra cosmetic nucleus, whether it's our mitochondria, whether it's ghrelin, whatever the case might be with our different hormones, neurotransmitters, and tissues, they're all made from the food that we eat, and they're all run off the fuel that we provide ourselves. And one of the most important nutrients for helping that cellular communication is this category called electrolytes. These are minerals that carry an electric charge and enable our body to do all the cool things that it does. In particular with energy transfer, it's not just ATP as this energy exchange or energy currency in our bodies. As I was taught in my very expensive private university that I went to, it's not just ATP. The active form is bonded with magnesium. That is the key. Magnesium is responsible for over 650 biochemical processes that we're aware of, probably many more. But that's just for starters. And many of them involve energy. As a matter of fact, magnesium is literally required to make new mitochondria, which these are the glorified energy power plants of our cells making ATP. But keep this in mind though, magnesium is the number one mineral deficiency noted in peer-reviewed data today, close to 60% of our citizens are deficient in magnesium. Now you combine this electrolyte with another critical electrolyte, sodium and potassium as well. These three are top tier in importance and high quality forms of these electrolytes are severely lacking in our diet today. This is why I'm such a huge fan of element, the incredible science-based electrolyte supplement free from unnecessary sugars and food dyes, just high quality electrolytes that our bodies need and really thrive on. You notice a difference, you notice a difference when you're utilizing element. Go to drinklmnt.com/model and you're going to get a free gift pack with every purchase of electrolytes. So they're gonna send you a free sample pack of all the different types of electrolytes for free whenever you purchase any electrolyte products at all. It's really awesome of them to provide this incredible gift to us. But the most important thing is for us to provide ourselves this cellular gift of better communication. Go to drinklmnt.com/model. Get the very best electrolytes in the world.
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