Here's how you can combat the negative health effects of working in shifts
| Feb 22, 2019, 10:52 IST
Anybody who has ever worked in shifts knows just how tiring it can get to try and get your body adjusted to the weird timings. While working in shifts can make a person feel lethargic it can also take a severe toll on health if continued for long. However, a new study has now found that doing a bit of exercise can help adjust your body clock to your shifted schedules. The research was conducted by the Arizona State University and showed that depending on the time of day or night, exercising could help make changes to the body clock.
If one exercises at 10 am or between 1 pm and 4 pm, it can advance the body clock to an earlier time, whereas exercising between 7 pm to 10 pm could delay the body clock to a later time. "Exercise has been known to cause changes to our body clock. We were able to clearly show in this study when exercise delays the body clock and when it advances it," said lead author Shawn Youngstedt.
"This is the first study to compare exercise's effects on the body clock, and could open up the possibility of using exercise to help counter the negative effects of jet lag and shift work." For the study, 101 participants were surveyed for five and a half days. Their urine samples were collected every 90 minutes to figure out how much melatonin levels had peaked in their body. Well, this method certainly seems promising. Stay tuned for more updates.
If one exercises at 10 am or between 1 pm and 4 pm, it can advance the body clock to an earlier time, whereas exercising between 7 pm to 10 pm could delay the body clock to a later time. "Exercise has been known to cause changes to our body clock. We were able to clearly show in this study when exercise delays the body clock and when it advances it," said lead author Shawn Youngstedt.
"This is the first study to compare exercise's effects on the body clock, and could open up the possibility of using exercise to help counter the negative effects of jet lag and shift work." For the study, 101 participants were surveyed for five and a half days. Their urine samples were collected every 90 minutes to figure out how much melatonin levels had peaked in their body. Well, this method certainly seems promising. Stay tuned for more updates.