Circadian Rhythms & gut health
Do you have any memories of neighborhood kids playing outside together?
I grew up in the 80’s. I remember riding bikes around my neighborhood with some neighborhood kids. We were allowed to go to the park as often as we wanted. It was just 2 blocks away. In my brain, any other route was non-existent. I had all the freedom I really wanted. Just my house & yard, and the park. I was always outside!
When I was about 8 we moved to the country. I remember salamanders and mudpies. Lots of cats and some mangy dogs.
Sometimes in the afternoons I would watch Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow. But I remember these shows were not the theme to my childhood.
Even in high school if I had a stressful day or week I would drive myself out to the local State Park and just sit in silence. There was something powerful about the quiet and beauty that seemed to help my nervous system reset itself.
I know all of this is very nostalgic. Maybe you are my age or older and you share a similar nostalgia?
It is obvious that times have changed. What? How? Why?
I have had seasons of parenting that are more intentional than others. We had a few years that are a bit of a blur because our 5th child was born mentally and physically handicapped. When she was 16 months old until she was about 5, those years are a blur. We spent a lot of time in and out of emergency rooms and then seeing multiple specialists. Read more about our story here.
During those years I’m not really sure what the other kids were doing? We were in survival mode.
If you have a kid with allergies, physical or mental handicaps, then you know that day to day can be fragile.
Through my studies in gut health and GAPS, I have learned about so many natural methods that are making a huge “comeback”. It seems that our culture has shifted so far from basic human needs that when we start to integrate them back into life, we are reminded that they are in fact life-sustaining.
One of these basic needs is sunlight.
What I didn’t know was that our biology is connected to sunlight even to the depth of the changing of our microbiome.
Having time in the sun is essential for hormonal health, a healthy microbiome, and emotional health.
We know that we need it. On sunny days we feel happier and on cloudy days we feel more gloomy. Why is that? Since mood is related to hormones, then we can conclude that the sunlight affects our hormonal health.
We are now learning that different wavelengths of the sun have health benefits. The electromagnetic spectrum is the rainbow of different colors. Each color in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum is a different wavelength of light - from longer red wavelengths to shorter blue and violet wavelengths. ROYGBIV
Red morning light helps to regulate melatonin, the sleepy hormone.
Blue light helps fight cancer growth.
Light therapy is a modality many providers are using for lots of therapies. Of course artificial light could never replace the natural benefits of direct sunlight.
Depending on the time of day, you are exposed to different wavelengths of light. Each color of the spectrum has health benefits and being exposed to every spectrum of light is important.
We know that there are flowers and animals that follow the sun.
What can we learn from flowers? Heliotropism in sunflowers - young sunflower plants track the sun from east to west during the day and then reorient during the night to face east in anticipation of dawn.
Flowers, like the sunflower, track the sun to increase pollinators and for growth. As they mature they don’t continue to do this. This is a good example of how plants have a circadian rhythm.
Other plants that have this phenomenon are the Jasmine tree and the Four o’clock flowers.
We know that human biology also “follows” the sun and is impacted by exposure to the sun.
The supra charismatic nucleus = 20,000 brain cells, or neurons. This tiny clock is the central conductor of life’s biological rhythmic symphony. Light sensing protein outside the rod & cone cells that is the light sensor that entrains the daily sleep wake cycle. Light at the wrong time can disrupt this sleep cycle. Being awake under bright lights confuses our brain. Constant exposure to light at night causes disruption of our biological rhythms and leads to other hormonal abnormalities.
Receiving natural light directly through the eyes communicates to the Suprachaismatic Nucleus. The SCN is the conductor of all the biological functions of the body.
Spending time in the sun aligns your biological clock. Not having sunlight leads to dysfunction and illness.
What is this Circadian Rhythm?
Circadian Rhythm: “Circa” = around “Diem” = Day
Sleep - before we wake, our internal clock prepares our body to wake up - shuts down production of a sleep hormone melatonin from the pineal gland, blood pressure rises, core body temp rises ½ degree.
Every living creature on the planet with a lifespan of more than several days generates a circadian rhythm.
This internal clock communicates this signal to every other region of the brain and every organ in your body.
We are learning that each organ has a clock. Almost every one of our cells contains a clock and each is programmed to turn on or off thousands of genes at different times of the day or night.
1000’s of genes turn on and off at different times in synchronized fashion. This clock controls eating, drinking, moods, emotions, urine you produce, core body temperature, metabolic rate, and releasing of hormones.
Circadian Rhythms optimize biological functions - every function of the body has a specific time because the body can’t accomplish all it needs to do at once. For example, digestion is faster during the day and slows down at night and glucose isn’t absorbed.
Erratic lifestyles cause Circadian Rhythm disruption.
The Chinese Body Clock has been using this for many centuries and correlates the organs to emotions.
What does Sunlight + Circadian Rhythm have to do with the Microbiome?
Humans are good at creating unbalanced situations in nature, including our bodies!
After WW2 almost everyone experiences chronic circadian disruption. Electric light allows us to have more nighttime activity.
Artificial light & screen times are causing imbalances that ultimately impacts our body functions.
When we disrupt our circadian rhythm, our metabolism is changed.
What happens in the gut flora has a profound effect on every other microbial community in the body:
Composition of the gut microbiome changes between day and night.
We go to bed with one set of bacteria and wake up with a different set.
In the middle of the day we have a different set.
People with erratic lifestyles have different gut flora. Our lifestyle choices can change the whole ecosystem inside of us with many consequences.
Sunlight is not optional!
Maybe you have been focused on diet and yet have not considered making some lifestyle changes?
Getting more sunlight in your day will make a huge change in your gut health!
If you want to watch the full webinar that I taught on Circadian Rhythms for the NACEE conference, you can find it here.
Resources I recommend to learn more about Circadian Rhythm & gut health:
All the GAPS books
1000 hours outside challenge & charts
1000 hours outside podcast
