Dhru Purohit Show
The Science Behind When To Eat and Other Top Lessons On Circadian Biology
20 Jan 2025
This episode is brought to you by Pique Life and Birch Living. We used to think that the circadian rhythm only affected sleep. However, emerging science shows it’s deeply connected to metabolism, cognition, chronic disease risk, and many other critical aspects of health. Our biology is designed to function in harmony with the natural light-dark cycle, but modern society has significantly disrupted this balance. Today on The Dhru Purohit Show, we bring you a special compilation episode featuring Dhru's conversations with leading experts on the critical role circadian rhythms play in our health and well-being. Dr. Satchin Panda delves into his groundbreaking research on circadian biology, revealing how leveraging your circadian rhythm can significantly improve sleep, reduce the risk of chronic diseases, and enhance cognitive function. He also shares how time-restricted eating, exercise, and light exposure can help program your circadian rhythm, with a special focus on the importance of these tools for shift workers. Dr. Moore-Ede discusses the dangers of chronic blue light exposure and its profound impact on health, highlighting research that reveals how it disrupts circadian rhythms. He also examines the connection between light exposure and obesity and explains why these risks remain underrepresented in mainstream media. Dr. Satchin Panda, a professor at the Salk Institute and founder of the UC San Diego Center for Circadian Biology, is a leading researcher in circadian biology. Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, a former Harvard Medical School professor and expert in circadian rhythms, has conducted groundbreaking research on light's role in regulating sleep-wake cycles and overall health. In this episode, Dhru and his guests dive into: Why when we eat is more important than what we eat (01:38) Effects of chronic late-night eating (08:18) Adverse effect of disrupting our circadian rhythm (16:25) What is sleep debt (19:21) Paying attention to when you eat (30:16) Research on time-restricted eating (34:08) Why sleeping with the lights on is damaging to your health (39:01) Why sun exposure is critical for good health (41:55) Dr. Martin's recommended time for sun exposure (49:28) The link between blue light and obesity (51:42) Master clock of the circadian rhythm, cortisol, melatonin, and others (54:06) Why doctors aren't talking about the harmful effects of blue lights (59:03) Blue lights in hospitals and how they prevent healing (01:04:47) Also mentioned: Full episode with Dr. Satchin Panda Full episode with Dr. Martin Ede-Moore This episode is brought to you by Pique Life and Birch Living. Right now, Pique Life is offering 20% off the Radiant Skin Duo plus a free beaker and frother when you go to piquelife.com/dhru. To get 25% off your Birch Living mattress plus two free eco-rest pillows, head over to birchliving.com/dhru today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Hi everyone, Drew Proat here. You know, when most of us hear the term circadian rhythm, we tend to immediately think about sleep. But the truth is that our circadian rhythm reaches far beyond sleep with significant, significant implications for all sorts of things like your immune health,
mental health, cognitive health, and your risk of all sorts of chronic diseases, including things like cancer. This is why it's so key to understand the role of our circadian rhythm and how adopting lifestyle practices to support it and staying away from the ones that don't support it will have a massive impact on your overall health.
In today's compilation episode, I'm talking with two experts on the topic of circadian rhythm. One of the first experts on the podcast is Dr. Sachin Panda. He's a professor at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies, a Pew Biomedical Scholar, and the founder of the UC San Diego Center for Circadian Biology. And he's also the recipient of the Julie Martin Mid-Career Award in Aging Research.
And in addition to Dr. Sachin Panda, we also have Dr. Martin Moore E. He's a highly respected expert in circadian rhythms and the impact that light has on our health. As a former professor at Harvard Medical School, he's conducted extensive research on the role of light in regulating our sleep-wake cycles and our overall well-being and our risk of chronic disease.
Okay, let's start off by jumping into my conversation with Dr. Sachin Panda on the importance of circadian rhythms, as well as why we want the timing of eating, sleeping, and other daily activities to align with the body's natural cycles. I want to jump right in.
Tell us about why when we eat, which is the timing of when we decide to eat, the window, might be just as important, if not more important, than what we eat.
Circadian rhythm essentially relates to almost a daily timetable of things that has to happen in our body, whether it is fighting infection, metabolic balance, brain health, or even repair and rejuvenation for injuries. And when we think about circadian rhythm, then since it's a big new concept, it's also a little bit difficult to understand. But just imagine that in our life, daily life,
we organize our life around time we think of the whole day what time I have to get up what time I have to go to school or send kids to school and then what time I go to work what we do and then in the evening what time I have to meet friends or get back to home what time we sleep so similarly every single cell in our body has its own 24 hours timetable
that means the cell has to decide okay this is the time i have to make energy this is the time when i have to recycle this is the time to divide and rejuvenate so this is a very new concept of in science and this has the potential to impact our daily habits and it has the potential to increase efficacy of medications that we take or supplements that we take on a daily basis
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