Ultradian Rhythms - Jedi Health

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9 years 1 month ago - 9 years 1 month ago #182541 by Adder
Ritual Eating, Activity and Sleeping for Ideal Health!?

I read a very interesting article yesterday which I think could have great importance for people trying to manage mental stress and disorder, which to be honest is everyone!!! I'll take a moment to explain what/why I think its important, or you can just go down to the link to the study itself if its TLDR> Hopefully the read though will help explain it!!

The sleep-wake cycle of mammals is controlled by a ‘circadian clock’ within the brain, which is synchronized to the day–night cycle. This can be represented in one way by the Cortisol levels;

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Which could be simplified to associate with triggering the increase in energy levels, which tend to 'wake up' the body gradually from sleep and support the many functions for daily activity. However, other aspects of mammalian physiology have been observed to fluctute in cycles that repeat every few hours, and are known as ultradian rhythms but it appears that mental health is higher when they are synchronized in a harmony... like music in tune perhaps.

The main internal clock, the circadian rhythm, has been thought to be the primary timekeeper, but authors of the study have now identified a second internal clock within the brain, which they name ‘the DUO’ (dopaminergic ultradian oscillator), and shown that this clock normally works in concert with the circadian clock to regulate daily patterns of activity, alertness and eating. You might know that dopamine is an important brain chemical in memory and mental health, and disorders including schizophrenia and ADHD which all points to mental perception itself more broadly.

"...results provide strong evidence that a dopaminergic ultradian oscillator (DUO) driving rhythms of behavioral arousal is continuously operative in the mammalian brain. We propose that under normal conditions, this DUO cycles in harmony with the circadian SCN pacemaker and that the rhythmic information of both the SCN and the DUO are integrated at a common downstream site to create the daily pattern in locomotor activity. However, elevation of DA tone can lead to DUO period lengthening, which either results in DUO free-run or reinstatement of oscillator synchrony albeit at a different harmonic. The DUO appears as a highly tunable oscillator, able to adopt period lengths from a few hours to multiple days. This is instark contrast to the circadian timer which cannot adopt periods that are more than a few hours off from 24 hr when its limits of entrainment are tested experimentally"

"Experiments in mice revealed that the DUO uses the brain chemical dopamine to generate bursts of activity roughly every four hours. Moreover, it continues to work when the circadian clock has been destroyed. Measurements of dopamine in freely moving mice showed that levels of the chemical fluctuate in synchrony with the animals' activity levels. Moreover, drugs that flood the brain with dopamine, such as methamphetamine, disrupt the 4-hour cycle by lengthening the period between bursts of activity, whereas drugs that block dopamine receptors have the opposite effect."

So another reason to not take Meth, as if you didn't already have enough, LOL

But seriously, I don't think they directly suggest that perhaps food and activity cues engage the dopamine system specifically to reset this into harmony, rather saying "it is clear that dopamine signaling also affects food intake as mice lacking dopamine are lethargic and do not actively consume food ". They state "the DUO is a universal driver of ultradian behavioral rhythms in mammals, and that ultradian bouts of running-wheel and feeding activity are co-expressed, suggesting that dopamine can synchronously drive food seeking and general activity - which is in line with the view that dopamine acts as a general promoter of motivated arousal. " but it makes me wonder perhaps if an important part of good health is the management of a quite literally 'harmonious' pattern of eating, activity and sleeping as a much higher priority in peoples lives for health, happiness and therefore longevity and productivity.

So here is a modification to the above cortisol graph, which has a new red waveform at 4 hour intervals to represent the dopamine cycles, fixed at the lowest cortisol peak (which then happens to perfectly line up a peak with the 12 noon peak), and also added a blue single sine wave to represent an idealized circadian cycle fixed at the 12 noon peak to perhaps accurately represent the delayed impact of cortisol but also its association to the peak of light in a day - night cycle so readily attributed to circadian rhythms.

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Perhaps a Jedi 'ritual' for health could be eating small meals and doing some small exercise at these peaks to harmonize the body and mind to enrich the soul!!!

Here is the study;
A highly tunable dopaminergic oscillator generates ultradian rhythms of behavioral arousal
http://elifesciences.org/content/3/e05105

Knight ~ introverted extropian, mechatronic neurothealogizing, technogaian buddhist. Likes integration, visualization, elucidation and transformation.
Jou ~ Deg ~ Vlo ~ Sem ~ Mod ~ Med ~ Dis
TM: Grand Master Mark Anjuu
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Last edit: 9 years 1 month ago by Adder.
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