Recently the shills at Medical News Today posted an article based on new research on the topic of exercise and our circadian rhythm. Although most of this should be common sense, let’s see what they actually got right and what they didn’t (or simply ignored to tell you.)
“Over the past few years, researchers have come to have a better understanding of how the body’s circadian rhythm impacts overall health.”
Really? Most of this used to be common sense that has seemed to have been forgotten in recent years, such as that the evening and night is for rest, detoxification and healing, and the early part of the day is for work, hunting and finding food. In other words, you rise with the sun, stay active and have a meal or two, then as the sun sets you relax and tend to your family or tribe taking part in social interactions and prepare yourself for a good night’s sleep.
“Past studies show that disrupting the body’s 24-hour sleep/wake cycle can negatively impact a person’s ability to think and focus, and can potentially increase their risk for several health conditions, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, depression, and even some cancers.”
Yes, of course. If you interfere with your day-and-night cycle, and thus decrease the quality of your sleep, you will also limit your ability to detoxify, heal damaged tissue, and simply your ability to recover — as all of those things are accelerated in rest and especially when you sleep. If this happens, both toxins and cellular damage will accumulate in your body, which will manifest, sooner or later, as what we call “diseases.”
“In addition to regulating when you are awake or sleeping, the circadian rhythm also defines the times you perform activities during the day such as when you go to work, when you eat different meals, and when you exercise.”
No, not really. Your natural circadian rhythm is the same as for every single human — the same way we all share the same physiology and the same species-specific and species-appropriate diet of animal-based foods. Your activities, depending on your artificially created schedule can on the other hand impact and disturb your natural circadian rhythm, changing it by a few or by several hours, which can have some really negative implications.
To be as healthy as possible, you should try to align with your natural circadian rhythm, which is an internal clock that operates according to a day-and-night cycle, or since we humans invented the concept of time, you can say that it operates on an artificial “24-hour” cycle.
The circadian rhythm is regulated by a “master clock” located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the brain. Environmental cues, known as zeitgebers, such as light and darkness, daily changes in temperature, and social interactions help synchronize the circadian rhythm with the external world.
During the day, the SCN controls the production of hormones like cortisol, which promotes alertness and energy expenditure, and regulates body temperature, cognitive performance, and appetite. As evening approaches, cortisol decreases and the SCN signals the production of melatonin, which induces sleepiness.
In short, it’s important to get up early and if you want to be physically active, it should be during the earlier part of the day, and then you should wind down as evening approaches and be relaxed before going to sleep. Same with feeding, eat your meals during the earlier part of the day to make sure digestion does not interfere with sleep. Being outdoors as much as possible is crucial, as the real light from the sun gives queues to your SCN to keep your circadian rhythm on track.
“Previous research shows that circadian rhythm can impact a person’s exercise performance and recovery time. A disrupted sleep/wake cycle can also cause issues with the body’s ability to regulate temperature, and cause hormonal fluctuations, which can also impact physical activity.”
Yes. You release growth hormone during the first initial hours of sleep, but only if you go to bed before 10.00 p.m. (22:00.) If you go to bed later, this growth hormone releasing effect will be hampered, which is very bad for recovery and it will age you faster. Same with detoxification, and also testosterone production to a degree, which peaks during the early morning hours just before it’s time to wake up.
“Now, a new study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise reports that people who work out at the same time every day may improve their cardiovascular and lung health as they age.”
For sure, if you exercise in the morning or during the day, but absolutely not in the evening.
How exercise impacts cardiorespiratory fitness later in life
“For this study, researchers recruited about 800 older adults with an average age of 76 years. Study participants were asked to wear wrist-worn accelerometers for seven days to measure their daily activity, and also underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing to assess their heart and lung health.
Cardiorespiratory fitness is a measure of how well your heart, lungs, and muscles work together in response to exercise, Karyn Esser, PhD, told Medical News Today.
Higher values are strongly associated with longer lifespan and lower mortality risks.
The study also evaluated the walking efficiency of participants, which is considered another indicator of healthy aging.
Walking efficiency provides an assessment of how efficiently the body uses energy to walk forward. The more efficient you are, the farther you can walk. It’s another measure of fitness.”
Okay then, so very low intensity exercise. Actually, we should not even call it exercise as walking is normal and something you should do everyday anyway.
With that being said, it’s a perfect activity for those of an average age of 76-years old.
Earlier, more consistent daily activity linked to better heart and lung health
“At the study’s conclusion, Esser and her team found that participants who had the most activity during the active part of their day relative to their daily resting time, and whose maximum daily activity happened earlier in the day, were correlated to better cardiorespiratory fitness and walking efficiency.”
Yes, I kind of covered this already. It’s more aligned to our natural life in nature and it should be common sense. In contrast, if you exercise in the evening your body will stay in an active and alert mode for several hours, which will interfere with your natural circadian rhythm where you should be winding down, relaxing and getting prepared for sleep.
“We found that earlier peak activity was associated with better outcomes even when you [take] into account the amount of activity. This suggests that getting moving earlier in the day could provide a health benefit. In addition, we found that the amplitude of the activity, or amount of activity during the day was healthy, this is maybe not such a surprise.
Additionally, scientists observed that better health outcomes were correlated to having a greater consistency in daily activity patterns, with the highest activity time happening at the same time every day.”
Yes, your body will adapt to your routines and activities and become more efficient — especially if they are aligned with your natural circadian rhythm. Again, common sense.
Earlier time of activity, repeatability’ important to staying healthy as we age
“To sum up, Esser said that this study finds that maintaining a daily programme of activity that includes attention to the timing and consistency of activity is important for maintaining health as we age.”
Uhm, yes. This is what we as humans have always done. Get up early, get active and do whatever it takes to survive during the day and then wind down and rest and repeat the next day. It’s pretty much the same for any animal. It’s a natural routine where you are active at the same hours every day.
Just because we have become “civilized” and have everything available to us in our “modern society” does not mean that our physiology suddenly changed. You should still get up early, get to work and do any physical activity, have your meals, and then as evening approaches wind down and spend time with your family and prepare for a good night’s sleep. Simple, logical, and common sense. No study needed to confirm this.
“While we are living longer, in general, we are not living healthier, she explained. So it is important to find ways to help people maintain or improve their health while aging, [to] improve quality of life and diminish the impact of age-related chronic diseases.”
Stop lying. We are not living longer. Before agriculture and plant-based crap was introduced to meet the demands of an exploding population growth and as a measure of control and to keep people weak and sickly, humans used to live 120 to 130 years. It is established science that the human body has the potential to live for about 150 years if following our natural species-appropriate diet and limiting toxic exposure. It is today’s modern diet of plant-based and processed garbage in combination with supplements, drugs, vaccines, and other toxins that has almost halved our natural lifespan.
While staying active and also following our circadian rhythm is important for health and longevity, our diet is the most important and crucial factor by far — by a thousandfold.
Every single time you consume something that is species inappropriate, as in anything plant-based, you poison your body and damage it. And every time you damage your body, the resources to try and repair it will subtract from your maximum lifespan. It is as easy as that, and no daily repeatable exercise will save you from those mistakes.
Are tailored exercise recommendations in our future?
“This study found an association between the timing of daily physical activity and measures of cardiopulmonary fitness, Cheng-Han Chen, MD commented. This suggests that we may eventually be able to better tailor our exercise recommendations in order to optimize the physiological benefits.”
So, you’re going to make a “fitness recommendation thing” out of what should be common sense? Here’s a quick breakdown and it’s absolutely free.
Never go to sleep later than 10.00 p.m. and make sure to get about 7 hours of sleep. Spend a few hours outside every day. If you want to do physical work or exercise, do it at least two hours after waking up and no later than 4.00 or 5.00 p.m. in the afternoon. Eat early in the day and always have your last meal 4 to 6 hours before going to bed, which should be around 3.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. at the latest. Make sure that you only consume species-appropriate foods, such as animal-based foods as humans are obligate hyper carnivores.
Yes, going to the gym in the evening as most people do is not a good idea and it is even worse if you have a meal afterwards, as late-night digestion will really destroy your sleep quality, detoxification and hormone production. I’ve covered this in-depth in many previous articles.
Personally, I wake up naturally at 4.00 a.m., when exercising I hit the gym at around 7.00 a.m. I have my last meal at 2.30 p.m. (or sometimes 4.30 p.m.) and I go to bed before 9.00 p.m.
And that was it from Medical News Today. Not really groundbreaking stuff, simply common sense. For more on the subject, check the link recommendations below and my archives.
If you need help with any kind of health problems or transitioning from your current way of eating to our natural species-appropriate, species-specific way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
Coaching and Consultation
And if you found the article and my insights helpful and enjoy my daily free information, please consider donating to help pay the webhosting bills and keep the site running. And if you’re interested in discussing and sharing information with likeminded people, consider joining our uncensored community at Ungovernable.se. Thank you!
