Chronic, low-grade inflammation caused by high fat diets contributes to obesity and type 2 diabetes and other inflammation-related disorders like cardiovascular disease, stroke and rheumatoid arthritis. Prof David Earnest, Ph.D. and his team have shown that consumption of saturated fats at certain times may “jet lag” internal clocks, as well as the resulting inflammation.
Earnest’s previous work suggested that a high-fat diet alters how our body clocks keep time, particularly in immune cells that mediate inflammation. Earlier findings show that a high fat diet slows down the clocks in immune cells such that they no longer “tell” accurate time. Now, he and his team, including Robert S. Chapkin, Ph.D., Texas A&M Distinguished Professor and deputy director of the Center for Translational Environmental Health Research, have shown that one type of fat in particular -specifically a saturated fatty acid called palmitate, is the big culprit in compromising the accuracy of our body clocks.
Essentially, palmitate “jet lags” cells in your body so that some are reset to different “time zones.” Humans can manage all right when their entire bodies move into a different time zone, but inflammation seems to result when some cells are shifted but others are not. Unfortunately, palmitate (also called palmitic acid) is one of the most commonly consumed long chain saturated fats in the Western diet.
“Chronic inflammation is determined by what saturated fats you have in your diet and when you eat them,” Earnest said. The reported findings predict the best time to eat a high-fat meal is early in the morning and probably the worst time is late at night. So, it’s not just what you eat, but also when you eat it.
Earnest’s new research also shows specific polyunsaturated “good” fats and other anti-inflammatory drugs had protective effects at times when saturated fats cause maximal inflammation and the resetting of body clocks.
“Not all fats are bad for you,” Earnest said. “We wanted to look specifically comparing palmitate with DHA, which is a common polyunsaturated omega 3.” Consistent with established findings that DHA is anti-inflammatory, the results indicated that disrupting the inflammatory response with this omega3 also blocked the resetting of body clocks to the wrong time. Thus, Earnest believes that chronotherapeutic strategies using omega 3 fatty acids or other anti-inflammatory treatments may be effective in preventing these local time changes in our body clocks caused by saturated fats.
“Our findings suggest that we may be able to control the inflammatory response locally in specific tissues, maximizing the inflammation with timed palmitate treatment to help the body respond to infection or injury,” Earnest said. “We could then deliver appropriate treatments at specific times to block the chronic phase and potentially manage inflammation-related diseases.” https://vitalrecord.tamhsc.edu/timing-is-everything-especially-when-eating-fatty-foods/
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