 ‹ Blog Archive | Tuesday, Jun 21, 2011 Synchronized Circadian Rhythms: Nature’s Cancer Fighter Posted by Isaac Eliaz of Amitabha Medical Clinic & Healing Center Timing is everything. Time is of the essence. Perfect timing. Humanity’s captivation by temporal reality goes much deeper than the unifying framework of schedules, calendars, rituals and histories –it goes straight to our DNA. We live in a universe of cycles, nature’s clockwork, shaping and directing us since the literal “dawn of time.”
All life on earth is governed by a multitude of oscillating rhythms – a perpetual ebb and flow of energy and movement. The rhythms of day and night, the seasons and celestial motions, the rhythms of nature and our societies, all of these cyclical movements affect us at every layer of our being. We have evolved in synchronicity with our rhythmic environment, anticipating and adapting to our surroundings for optimization of our internal and external resources. Our bodies follow innate biological clocks governing cellular, metabolic and developmental processes which fluctuate minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day, following 24-hour cycles, 2-day cycles, weekly cycles, monthly lunar cycles, seasonal cycles annual cycles, 7,8 12, and 60 year cycles, life cycles, and more.
The Harmony of Traditional Chinese Medicine Based on this ebb and flow of energetic activity, the most appropriate medical treatments can be administered at specific optimal times in order to achieve maximum therapeutic effects. Much of TCM approach focuses on promoting health on all levels by synchronizing a patient with the rhythms of time, nature and the seasons. From a psycho-spiritual perspective, becoming familiar and in tune with these cycles serves as preparation for a harmonious transition of our most important cycle, the cycle of birth, life and death.
Chronotherapy: Fine Tuning Your Health Journey In general, circadian rhythms relate to the 24 hour solar cycle and can be found in plants, animals, and even fungi and bacteria. Body temperature, blood pressure, muscular strength, levels of circulating hormones, neurotransmitters, and numerous other metabolic compounds and physiological processes follow the tides of circadian rhythm. Diseases have their own rhythms, too. For example, some breast cancers have been found to grow faster during the day than at night.
Circadian Rhythms and Your Health Recently, there have been studies linking shift work – working during the night hours – to breast and other hormone-related cancers. Along with frequent jet lag and other factors such as alcohol excess, shift work is a major disruptor of circadian rhythms, mostly due to the excessive exposure to bright light during normal sleeping hours. Of all external cues affecting our circadian rhythms, light is the single most powerful influence. Prolonged exposure to bright light at night disrupts melatonin production, a serious affront to our health. Melatonin is perhaps the most important endogenous component in the regulation of our circadian clocks and circadian rhythmic processes. Its production is highest during the dark hours of the night when we can sleep in total darkness.
Melatonin Helps reset Your Circadian Clock Supplementing with melatonin should be done with guidance and supervision from your health care provider. Testing melatonin levels prior to supplementation will provide an accurate base line for appropriate treatment. Cancer patients can take up to 20 mg before bed time, but for most people, the dose is 0.5-3 mg nightly. Learn about other cancer-fighting supplements by downloading a complimentary wellness guide at www.dreliaz.org/wellness-guide/mcp.
Other Tips to Rebalance Your Rhythms
In ancient times, these natural cycles would serve to effectively set and regulate our internal rhythm keepers. Ideally, we should not require elaborate scientific mechanisms to synchronize ourselves with nature. It is only now, engulfed in a world that in many ways functions counter-intuitively to our innate biology, that we have learned what it really means to be “out of sync.” If we want to survive and thrive today, we need to take persistent measures to harmonize our internal and external symphonies. Learn more about natural cancer prevention and treatment therapies by visiting www.dreliaz.org.Click Here for Provider's Detail Page
|
 |
Drug InteractionsEvaluate the safety of using supplements and herbal remedies with drugs |
 |
Health ConditionsInformation of diseases and health problems from a holistic treatment perspective |
 |
Nutritional SupplementsInformation on vitamin and mineral supplements, drug interactions and foods |
 |
Botanical MedicineScientific monographs of medical plants, drug interactions and traditional usage |
 |
Health Definitions |
