To optimize health, sync your habits with your body clock. Here's how

"The body is an exquisite time-keeping machine. And growing evidence shows that if you align your daily habits with your circadian rhythms including when you sleep, eat, and exercise you can help fend off chronic disease and optimize good health. Let's start with a quick primer: "Your body is filled with clocks, explains Emily Manoogian, a researcher and chronobiologist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. In addition to the master clock in your brain, there are time-keeping mechanisms in every organ and in your cells.""

""Every cell in your body that has DNA has a molecular clock that keeps its own time," she says. They're all part of your body's circadian system helping you stay in sync with the 24-hour cycle. But our bodies don't keep perfect time on their own. Every day, we stray a bit from the 24-hour cycle, and need a reset, explains Salk Institute researcher Satchin Panda, author of The Circadian Code: Lose Weight, Supercharge Your Energy, and Transform Your Health from Morning to Midnight."

Returning to standard time better supports health but the clock change can be disruptive and bodies must adapt to increasing winter darkness. The body contains a master clock in the brain and molecular clocks in every organ and cell that together form the circadian system. Daily deviations from the 24-hour cycle require external resets. Primary time cues include sunlight, meal timing, and physical movement. Morning light exposure and time outdoors help resynchronize the master clock, while the first daily meal signals digestive clocks. Timing sleep, eating, and activity to circadian rhythms helps optimize health and lower chronic disease risk.

Read at www.npr.org