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Timing is Everything: How Daytime Eating Could Protect You from Heart Risks of Shift Work

Numerous studies have shown that working the night shift is associated with serious health risks, including to the heart. However, a new study suggests that eating only during the daytime could help people avoid the health risks associated with shift work.
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Timing is Everything: How Daytime Eating Could Protect You from Heart Risks of Shift Work

A recent study led by researchers at Mass General Brigham suggests that food timing could be a bigger risk factor than sleep timing when it comes to cardiovascular health. The study, published in Nature Communications, found that eating only during the daytime could help people avoid the health risks associated with shift work.

Researchers have long known that working night shifts is linked to serious health risks, including heart problems. However, this new study suggests that food timing may be a key factor in mitigating these risks.

“We wanted to understand what can be done to lower cardiovascular risk factors,” said senior author Frank A.J.L. Scheer, PhD, a professor of Medicine and director of the Medical Chronobiology Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Our new research suggests that food timing could be that target.”

The study involved 20 healthy young participants who were enrolled in a two-week in-patient study at the Brigham and Women’s Center for Clinical Investigation. They had no access to windows, watches, or electronics that would clue their body clocks into the time.

Participants followed a “constant routine protocol,” which allowed researchers to tease apart the effects of circadian rhythms from those of the environment and behaviors. During this protocol, participants stayed awake for 32 hours in a dimly lit environment, maintaining constant body posture and eating identical snacks every hour.

After that, they participated in simulated night work and were assigned to either eating during the nighttime (as most night workers do) or only during the daytime. Finally, participants followed another constant routine protocol to test the aftereffects of the simulated night work.

The investigators examined the aftereffects of the food timing on participants’ cardiovascular risk factors and how these changed after the simulated night work. Researchers measured various cardiovascular risk factors, including autonomic nervous system markers, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (which increases the risk of blood clots), and blood pressure.

Remarkably, these cardiovascular risk factors increased after simulated night work compared to the baseline in the participants who were scheduled to eat during the day and night. However, the risk factors stayed the same in the study participants who only ate during the daytime, even though how much and what they ate was not different between the groups – only when they ate.

Limitations of the study include that the sample size was small, although of a typical size for such highly controlled and intensive randomized controlled trials. Moreover, because the study lasted two weeks, it may not reflect the chronic risks of nighttime versus daytime eating.

A strength is that the study participants’ sleep, eating, light exposure, body posture, and activity schedule were so tightly controlled.
“Our study controlled for every factor that you could imagine that could affect the results, so we can say that it’s the food timing effect that is driving these changes in the cardiovascular risk factors,” said Sarah Chellappa, MD, MPH, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Southampton, and lead author for the paper.

While further research is necessary to show the long-term health effects of daytime versus nighttime eating, Scheer and Chellappa said the results are “promising” and suggest that people could improve their health by adjusting food timing. They add that avoiding or limiting eating during nighttime hours may benefit night workers, those who experience insomnia or sleep-wake disorders, individuals with variable sleep/wake cycles, and people who travel frequently across time zones.

Source:Brigham and Women's Hospital
Original Link:https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/04/250408121751.htm
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Bacteria

Unlocking Efficiency: Researchers Reveal Secrets of Cell Division with Min Proteins

The Min protein system prevents abnormal cell division in bacteria, but is poorly understood. Researchers have uncovered how engineered e.coli bacteria control protein levels for maximum efficiency.
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May 6, 2025

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The Min protein system is a complex process that helps bacteria divide evenly and correctly. For decades, scientists have studied this system, but understanding how it works efficiently has been a challenge. Recently, researchers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) made a groundbreaking discovery that sheds new light on the efficiency of cell division.

The UCSD team developed a way to control Min protein expression levels independently in E. coli cells. This allowed them to observe how different concentrations of Min proteins affect the oscillations between the poles of the cell. The results were surprising: despite varying concentrations, the oscillations remained stable across a wide range, with E. coli producing just the right amount of Min proteins.

This breakthrough is significant because it shows that the Min protein system can efficiently guide division to the correct location without relying on precise control over protein levels. This finding has far-reaching implications for our understanding of cellular organization and function.

The study was published in Nature Physics, a leading scientific journal, and was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The research team consisted of experts from both physics and chemistry/biochemistry departments at UCSD, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing our knowledge of cellular biology.

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“Unlocking TB Diagnosis: New Molecular Label Could Lead to Simpler, Faster Tests”

Chemists found a way to identify a complex sugar molecule in the cell walls of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the world’s deadliest pathogen. This labeling could lead to simpler, faster TB tests.
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May 6, 2025

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The world’s deadliest infectious disease, tuberculosis (TB), claims over 1 million lives annually. Despite advancements in diagnosis and treatment, TB remains a significant challenge, particularly in developing nations where access to chest X-rays and molecular diagnostics is limited. Current diagnostic methods often have high false negative rates and require extensive sample preparation, delaying diagnosis.

MIT chemists have developed a breakthrough approach using an organic molecule that reacts with specific sulfur-containing sugars found only in three bacterial species, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the microbe responsible for TB. By labeling a glycan called ManLAM using this small-molecule tag, researchers can now visualize where it is located within the bacterial cell wall and study what happens to it throughout the first few days of tuberculosis infection.

The research team led by Laura Kiessling, Novartis Professor of Chemistry at MIT, aims to use this approach to develop a diagnostic that could detect TB-associated glycans in culture or urine samples. This would provide a cheaper and faster alternative to existing diagnostics, making it more accessible to developing nations where TB rates are high.

Using their small-molecule sensor instead of antibodies, the researchers hope to create a more sensitive test that can detect ManLAM in the urine even when only small quantities are present. This has significant implications for TB diagnosis and treatment, particularly for patients with very active cases or those who are immunosuppressed due to HIV or other conditions.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Croucher Fellowship. The findings have the potential to revolutionize TB diagnosis and improve patient outcomes worldwide.

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A Game-Changing ‘Treasure Chest’ for Targeted Gut Treatment: Delivering Medicine Directly to the Lower Gut

A new approach to drug design can deliver medicine directly to the gut in mice at significantly lower doses than current inflammatory bowel disease treatments. The proof-of-concept study introduced a mechanism called ‘GlycoCaging’ that releases medicine exclusively to the lower gut at doses up to 10 times lower than current therapies.
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May 3, 2025

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The discovery of a new approach to drug design, called GlycoCaging, has opened up promising possibilities for targeted treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in humans. This innovative technique involves releasing medicine directly into the lower gut at significantly lower doses than current therapies.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) have developed this mechanism, which relies on specific bacteria residing in the human gut to unlock the “treasure chest” containing the medicine. By bonding a molecule to a steroid, the researchers have created a system that can deliver potent drugs directly to the inflamed areas of the gut.

According to Dr. Harry Brumer and Dr. Laura Sly, co-senior authors of the study published in Science, this technique has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of IBD, which affects an estimated 322,600 Canadians as of 2023. The current treatments for IBD often come with serious side effects, including osteoporosis, high blood pressure, diabetes, and negative mental health outcomes.

Using mice models of IBD, the researchers demonstrated that GlycoCaging can deliver medicine at doses up to 10 times lower than non-caged versions while achieving the same anti-inflammatory effects. The study showed that the drug was targeted exclusively to the gut, with minimal absorption in other areas of the body.

The potential for human treatment is promising, as the research team found that all people had the ability to activate the drugs using the GlycoCaging system, even those with IBD. Moreover, the majority of participants had genetic markers indicating their ability to use this system.

While more advanced animal trials and human clinical trials are needed to further validate the efficacy and safety of GlycoCaging, this innovative approach has the potential to transform the treatment of IBD and other gut-related disorders. The UBC researchers have patented the technology, paving the way for future development and implementation in humans.

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