Health Highlight: Natural Metabolite Might Reset Aging Biological Clocks

October 14, 2015 | by
Polyamides linked to aging

As we age, our biological clocks tend to wind down. A Weizmann Institute research team has now revealed an intriguing new link between a group of metabolites whose levels drop as our cells age and the functioning of our circadian clocks – mechanisms encoded in our genes that keep time to cycles of day and night. Their results, which appeared in Cell Metabolism, suggest that the substance (called polyamides), which is found in many foods, could possibly help keep our internal timekeepers up to speed.

Source: Weizmann Institute of Science

Health Highlights is a recurring series of curated health and medical news from around the web.

Gene that Influences When You Wake Also Predicts Time of Death

November 27, 2012 | by

Researchers have identified a common gene variant that is responsible for a person’s tendency to be an early riser or a night owl. This common genetic variant also helps determine the time of day a person is most likely to die. The findings appear in the November 2012 issue of the Annals of Neurology.

Body clock

Need For Less Sleep Associated with Gene Mutation

September 2, 2009 | by
ResearchBlogging.org

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have discovered the first gene involved in regulating the length of human sleep. The study, published recently in the journal Science, identified a genetic mutation that is associated with a short human sleep phenotype [1]. The finding may help scientists better understand the regulatory mechanisms of sleep and lead to treatments for a variety of sleep disorders.