Evidence has been found by University of California scientists of fasting affecting circadian clocks in the liver and skeletal muscle causing them to rewire their metabolism, which can lead to improved health and protection against aging associated diseases, as published in Cell Reports.
The circadian clock operates the body and organs as intrinsic time keeping machinery to preserve homeostasis in response to the changing environment. Food is known to influence clocks in peripheral tissues but it has been unclear how the lack of food influences clock function and the body.
Fasting influences the circadian clock and fasting driven cellular responses which work together to achieve fasting specific temporal gene regulations, such as skeletal muscle appears to be twice as responsive to fasting as is the liver, explains Paolo Sassone-Corsi who first showed the circadian rhythm metabolism link some 10 years ago, identifying metabolic pathways through which circadian proteins sense cell energy levels.
