Free Republic

Thousand of epigenetic switches in the liver control whether genes turn on or off in response to circadian cycles. The figure illustrates daily changes, every six hours, in five different...When it's dark, and we start to fall asleep, most of us think we're tired because our bodies need rest. Yet circadian rhythms affect our bodies not just on a global scale, but at the level of individual organs, and even genes. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute have determined the specific genetic switches that sync liver activity to the circadian cycle. Their finding gives further insight into the mechanisms behind...

Our internal 24-hour circadian clock regulates many aspects of physiology, including the response to infectious disease and vaccination. A new study demonstrates that antibody levels are higher when people receive the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in the afternoon versus the morning. "Our observational study provides proof of concept that time of day affects immune response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, findings that may be relevant for optimizing the vaccine's efficacy," said author Elizabeth Klerman, MD, Ph.D. Symptoms of some diseases and the action of numerous medications vary by time of day. People with lung diseases frequently have greater symptom severity and altered respiratory function...

When bedtime comes, as all children and sick people know, the boogeymen come out of the closet. Darkness, silence and isolation can turn chairs into tigers, and make even trivial health problems seem ominous and hopeless. But illness that goes bump in the night may not be just a patient's inner child coming out. Doctors have sensed for centuries that many diseases actually do get worse at night, and science has begun to confirm this impression. The emotions nighttime elicits, although they certainly do not help matters, are not primarily to blame. Instead, it is the body's internal chemicals and...