Chapter 15 - Inflammatory potential of the diet: role of circadian rhythms and sleep

Abstract

Circadian rhythms are integral to life at all levels. However, only in the last few decades have their roles and importance in promoting health and implications for preventing disease begun to be fully explored. Circadian rhythms have a profound effect on daily living in all organisms and strongly influence everything from the cell cycle and gene expression for numerous genes up through human behaviors such as timing of food consumption and how nutrients are utilized, including in mounting effective inflammatory and immune responses. The effect of circadian rhythm disruption, both in the brain's central clock, known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), and peripheral tissues, has been studied extensively. Of late, there has been growing interest in the relationship between diet (both quality and timing) and various circadian rhythms, primarily in peripheral tissues. In this chapter we provide an overview of the molecular and genetic underpinnings of the SCN and a molecular overview to peripheral rhythms, providing a biological framework through which behaviors act to influence inflammation. We discuss chrononutrition, as well as various fasting diets and their association with inflammation. We highlight sleep's and chronotype's relationship with circadian rhythms, diet, and inflammation, respectively. Finally, we discuss these relationships from a shift-working perspective, as shift workers commonly experience circadian disruption and abnormal eating times, which may lead to chronic systemic inflammation and inability to mount a competent immune response.