We have knowledge of many cycles in our world. The tides, day and night are the most obvious. All creatures great and small are subject to these unseen forces that ultimately shape our life and our experience of it.” The circadian clock in mammals drives many physiological processes including the daily rhythms of sleep–wake behaviour, hormonal secretion, and metabolism. Less known, is that the clock also drives our immune cycles; an important factor in cancer treatment and recovery says Melbourne University Research Fellow Martin Ashdown, who has studied the phenomena for a long time. The science of taking advantage of the body’s own immune rhythm to improve efficacy of treatments is worth paying attention to whether its surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapies, radiation/cyberknife; one thing is now clear – timing of treatment matters!
Research work of Synchronizing cancer treatment with the patient’s immune cycle has been recently launched into our awareness by Martin Ashdown and Brendon Coventry – and hopefully this blog, and my radio show Navigating the Cancer Maze on Voice America’s Health and Wellness Channel. Please spread the news!
With regards to timing – Did you know that majority of best-selling drugs in the United States target circadian gene products? Consider the case of statins, a class of drug that lowers cholesterol by inhibiting HMGCR (HMG-CoA reductase). HMGCR is the rate-limiting enzyme in cholesterol biosynthesis and its activity peaks during the night. Statins with short half lives showed maximal efficacy when taken in the evening (when their target gene was most active).This is just one example of chronotherapeutic practices positively impacting drug treatment. In other words – it’s all in the timing. (see resources below for more information on this).
In terms of Circadian rhythms and body clocks – simply reconsider an old message for good health. “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise!”
Take a look at the following diagram ( source Scientific American) to see what your body clock is doing – and at what time!
Body clocks–-circadian rhythms—health; has been a hobby–horse of mine for some years. I am widely read on the subject and back more than 20 years ago – it became clear to me that there were tremendous health connections and implications for health and wellbeing and disease prevention – not only treating disease once it is evident.
So here is a Window of Opportunity for you
Readers of this blog – I invite you to stop for a moment and consider how your body clock affects your life. Is it possible to make some simple changes IN TERMS OF TIME & TIMING?
Do you listen to your body clock or constantly override it? Those of us who are disease free have the luxury of change and can enjoy the consequences-improved health. We don’t even have to have an immune cycle test – we SIMPLY NEED TO BECOME MORE AWARE of living in synch with ourselves and who and what is around us. It is the only real power that we have.
Being aware of your body clock and timing in your world, has one enormous benefit and this is also useful for anyone 
dealing with a diagnosis of cancer – It brings you more into conscious connection with your body. Many patients over the past 40 years have told me that this is an unexpected gift that cancer brought to their lives. Some could view it as an opportunity for changing lifestyle, jobs etc…In terms of timing – the question begs what has happened in this person’s life that has perhaps interfered with their personal body clock? What could have caused a highly synchronized system to go into cellular chaos? These are big questions – but then again cancer is a big illness!
Left Martin Ashdown and me – Grace Gawler.
Visit http://www.gracegawlerinstitute.com/immune-cycle-registry/ to join our exploratory pilot study -Measure your immune system.
A paper published by Department of Cellular and Structural Biology, UT Health Science CenterSan Antonio, Texas, USA; 2Department of Internal Medicine, Thuringia, Saalfeld, Germany; 3Department of Physiology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Cracow, Poland states:
“There is a vast amount of literature suggesting that the photo-periodic environment (day/night) influences the incidence of cancer. While an association of chrono-disruption was initially proposed only for breast cancer, we recently suggested a more general theory, i.e., chrono-disruption may aggravate the development of many cancer types.”
Knowledge is power and knowledge of not only your body clock – but that of other mammals and nature. It’s all in the timing! Women’s’ menstrual cycle is perhaps the obvious one we know about. In nature – just watch a David Attenborough documentary to see the wonder of timing in nature!
We have knowledge of many cycles in our world. The tides, day and night are the most obvious. All creatures great and small are subject to these unseen forces that ultimately shape our life and our experience of it.” The circadian clock in mammals drives many physiological processes including the daily rhythms of sleep–wake behaviour, hormonal secretion, and metabolism.
Less known, is that the clock also drives our immune cycles; an important factor in cancer treatment and recovery says Melbourne University Research Fellow Martin Ashdown, who has studied the phenomena for a long time. The science of taking advantage of the body’s own immune rhythm to improve efficacy of treatments is worth paying attention to whether its surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapies, radiation/cyberknife; one thing is now clear – timing of treatment matters! There is a window of opportunity within the 7 day cycle, Listen to Martin Ashdown to hear the story of how TIMING MATTERS!
Following on – some interesting articles and resources that relate to our body clock.
- Complete clinical responses to cancer therapy caused by multiple divergent approaches a repeating theme lost in translation
Coventry BJ1, Ashdown ML.1Discipline of Surgery, University of Adelaide, Royal Adelaide Hospital and Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Australia.
SOURCE: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22740774
- Window of Opportunity – Martin Ashdown and Brendon Coventry:
SOURCE: http://www.immunaid.com.au/download/pressreviews_2014053001.pdf
- The Clock Is Off: Bipolar Disorder and Circadian Rhythm – Scientific American – Apr 1, 2010 By Monica Heger
Bipolar disorder may be linked to mutations affecting circadian rhythm
|By Monica Heger
“An off-kilter body clock can throw off our sleep-wake cycle, eating habits, body temperature and hormones—and mounting evidence suggests a malfunctioning clock may also underlie the mood cycles in bipolar disorder. In a new study led by psychiatrist Alexander Niculescu of Indiana University, researchers found that children with bipolar disorder were likely to have a mutated RORB gene, which codes for a protein crucial to circadian clock function.”
Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-clock-is-off/
Circadian gene expression atlas in mammals: Implications for biology and medicine
Ray Zhanga,1, Nicholas F. Lahensa,1, Heather I. Ballancea, Michael E. Hughesb,2, and John B. Hogenescha,2
Department of Pharmacology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104; and bDepartment of Biology, University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO 63121
“We generated high-resolution multi-organ expression data showing that nearly half of all genes in the mouse genome oscillate with circadian rhythm somewhere in the body. Such widespread transcriptional oscillations have not been previously reported in mammals. Applying pathway analysis, we observed new clock-mediated spatiotemporal relationships. Moreover, we found a majority of best-selling drugs in the United States target circadian gene products. Many of these drugs have relatively short half-lives, and our data predict which may benefit from timed dosing.”
Source: http://www.pnas.org/content/111/45/16219.abstract
For the more scientifically minded – don’t be put off by the title!
The Photoperiod, Circadian Regulation and Chronodisruption: The Requisite Interplay Between The Suprachiasmatic Nuclei and The Pineal And Gut Melatonin:
1Department of Cellular and Structural Biology, UT Health Science CenterSan Antonio, Texas, USA; 2Department of Internal Medicine, Thuringia, Saalfeld, Germany; 3Department of Physiology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Cracow, Poland
“Part of their conclusion is that “Circadian rhythmicity is an integral component of normal and optimal physiology. Not only the SCN, but cells throughout the organism are equipped with internal clocks that control the molecular events that occur during each 24-hour period. These events appear to be precisely timed and in modern societies the intrinsic time keepers are provided with misinformation which, when prolonged, likely has ramifications in terms of increased pathologies.
It would seem judicious to take better care of the circadian network by providing appropriate photoperiodic cues, which currently seemed to be almost totally ignored. In addition, large amounts of this indoleamine (melatonin) is produced in the mucosa of GIT that seems to serve as local antioxidant and protective substance for the gut and liver against a variety of noxious agents, particularly the bacteria and their toxins, introduced into the gut with each meal.
There is a vast amount of literature suggesting that the photoperiodic environment influences the incidence of cancer. While an association of chronodisruption was initially proposed only for breast cancer, we recently suggested a more general theory, i.e., chronodisruption may aggravate the development of many cancer types.”
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21893686
Happy reading! Remember to visit our website: http://www.gracegawlerinstitute.com/immune-cycle-registry/
Until next time ………Grace
I wish to thank Singapore radio pharmaceuticals – who enabled today’s interview. The science, processes & advances of imaging techniques, & the radio-pharmaceuticals that magically make our inner parts visible to doctors for more accurate diagnosis; is the topic for today’s Navigating the Cancer Maze. 
