According to the study, our diet influences hormones and the internal clock – healing practice

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New nutritional influences discovered

Daily diet has a significant impact on our mental and physical health. However, the impact could be even greater than previously assumed. German scientists were able to prove with a study that nutrition has more far-reaching functions than the mere absorption of nutrients.

According to the current study, our hormone release and internal clock are also influenced by our food intake.

Researchers at the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) discovered previously unknown functions of nutrition. They showed that the type of food consumed or fasting episodes influenced both hormone levels and the change between rest and activity within the 24-hour cycle. The scientists presented their results in the renowned specialist journal “Cell“.

What is the internal clock?

Every single cell in the human body is tuned to the so-called circadian rhythm – a kind of internal clock that is synchronized with the 24-hour daily routine and follows the natural course of day and night. The circadian rhythm is influenced by sunlight and social habits.

According to the study team, a healthy person produces stress hormones every morning. These glucocorticoids induce the body to use fatty acids and sugar as energy sources in order to start the day full of energy.

If there are disorders of the circadian rhythm, for example as a result of illness, night shifts or jet lag, changes in the glucocorticoid level occur.

Such a disorder can lead to severe metabolic dysregulations and, for example, favor diseases such as obesity, fatty liver, high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes.

What are glucocorticoids?

Glucocorticoids are a group of steroid hormones. This group also includes the stress hormone cortisol, for example. Glucocorticoids are important hormones that trigger metabolic processes in the body in order to regulate the energy balance and provide energy sources.

But they also have anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive properties that influence the activity of the immune system.

Course of the study

In order to better understand the importance of the daily release of stress hormones, the research team examined the time-of-day-dependent metabolic cycle in mice. In doing so, they examined the influence of diet. With the help of the latest technologies, the researchers analyzed the livers of the mice every four hours. In this way they were able to show when and where glucocorticoid receptors develop their metabolic effect.

The team analyzed the 24-hour cycle of liver metabolism and the associated fluctuations in glucocorticoid release. The mice were fed either normal or high fat diets or were fasted for short periods.

What was observed?

It was shown, among other things, that the release of glucocorticoids is regulated differently during periods of fasting and when eating. The control takes place via a time-dependent binding of the hormones to the genome. According to the researchers, this is proof that the majority of rhythmic gene activity is controlled by these hormones. This is also an explanation of how the liver controls the sugar and fat levels in the blood differently during the day and night. In mice with a disturbed circadian rhythm, there was also a change in the sugar and fat levels in the blood.

Diet alters the response to hormones

In further tests, the researchers examined how the mice reacted to the injected active ingredient dexamethasone (synthetic glucocorticoid).

It was found that mice that were overweight due to a high-fat diet reacted differently to the active ingredient than lean mice. “This enabled us to show for the first time that diet can change the hormonal and drug reactions of the metabolism,” explains Dr. Fabiana Quagliarini from the research team. Since dexamethasone is often used in immunotherapy, it should be considered whether overweight people need different therapies than lean people.

Chronomedicine is gaining in importance

“If we understand how glucocorticoids control the 24-hour cycles of gene activity in the liver and thus the sugar and fat levels in the blood, we will gain new insights into ‘chronomedicine’ and the development of metabolic diseases,” adds Professor Henriette Uhlenhaut.

For the first time, the research group was able to show a new relationship between lifestyle, hormones and physiology at the molecular level. This suggests that obese people and people of normal weight might react differently to the daily hormone release or to glucocorticoid preparations. (vb)