Overeating can disrupt the body's clock

EVANSTON, Ill., Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Overeating can alter the core mechanism of the body's 24-hour internal clock throwing off internal signals for appetite control, a U.S. study found.

The study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, shows that changes in metabolic state associated with obesity and diabetes not only affects the body's circadian rhythms of behavior but also physiology.

Study leader Dr. Joe Bass, of Northwestern University and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, in Evanston, Ill., said the researchers observed actual changes in genes that encode the clock in the brain and in peripheral tissues such as fat, resulting in diminished expression of those genes.

"Our study was simple -- to determine if food itself can alter the clock," Bass said in a statement. "The answer is yes, alterations in feeding affect timing. We found that as an animal on a high-fat diet gains weight it eats at the inappropriate time for its sleep/wake cycle -- all of the excess calories are consumed when the animal should be resting."

The clock-metabolism cycles feed on each other, once weight gain starts, the clock is disrupted, and a disrupted clock exacerbates the original problem, affecting metabolism negatively and increasing the propensity for obesity and diabetes, Bass said.