5 ways to reset your body clock and cut cancer risk

It’s easy to forget about all of the things your circadian clock does for your body (like regulating your hormones, mood, metabolism and more). Because when it’s on-schedule, everything happens so seamlessly.

But when this clock needs to be reset, you know it. You can’t sleep. Your appetite is off. You feel listless and fatigued… or maybe even depressed. It’s no way to live.

And it’s actually harming your health in the most serious way… a way that could give you cancer.

Scientists have known for a while now that people who work the graveyard shift are more likely to develop cancer than the average 9 to 5er.  And they’ve always suspected this had something to do with their circadian rhythm. It turns out their suspicions were right…

A recent study published in the journal Cell Metabolism found that mice with a disrupted circadian clock were more likely to develop tumors.

In their study, researchers took cancer-prone mice and screwed with their circadian clocks in two different ways to see how each affected their cancer risk…

First, they exposed them to unnatural light patterns that mimic what humans experience when they have jet lag. Next, they altered genes that are responsible for the body’s circadian rhythm. In both cases, they found that the mice exposed to circadian clock disruption were more likely to develop tumors… and more aggressive, faster-growing tumors at that.

Of course, this study was done on mice not humans. But there’s a very good reason why your circadian clock could contribute to cancer growth in your body too…

Light controls your circadian clock. And your circadian clock pretty much controls all of the physiological processes your body undertakes each day… including cell metabolism and division. That means, if it gets screwed up, so does your body’s cell-making factory… and it could very well start churning out unhealthy cells.

Researchers also recently found that two of the genes that control each cell’s circadian rhythm act as tumor suppressors… which means if they’re not functioning right, they can’t put a stop to tumors the way they’re supposed to.

And it doesn’t matter whether you’re getting too much light or too little. It wreaks just as much havoc on your circadian clock and encourages tumor growth just the same, according to researchers.

The only solution, really, is to balance your body clock. And the best way to do that is by restoring natural light patterns to your life by:

1. Spending at least 20 to 30 minutes in natural morning sunlight
2. Getting a light therapy bulb or lamp if you’re stuck indoors all day
3. Avoiding brightly lit screens for at least one hour before bed
4. Going to bed at the same time every night
5. Sleeping in complete darkness

And if you try everything but still can’t get your body clock in balance, you may want to boost your magnesium intake. Researchers have found that magnesium levels play an important role in keeping your body clock running on-time. And since nearly 75 percent of U.S. adults aren’t getting the recommended daily dosage of magnesium (between 310 and 420 mg per day), that could be the solution that finally gets your body clock back on track.

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Sources:

1. Papagiannakopoulos, M.R. Bauer, S.M. Davidson, M. Heimann, et al. “Circadian Rhythm Disruption Promotes Lung Tumorigenesis.” Cell Metabolism. 28 July 2016.

2. “Magnesium: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.” National Institutes of Health. https://ods.od.nih.gov. Retrieved July 30, 2016.