Why Working Night Shift Rotations Causes Weight Gain: "There Was Scientific Evidence"

Jet Lag Fatigue Affects Hormones Regulating Appetite

It has been scientifically proven through animal experiments that night shift work promotes appetite.

According to Medical Express on the 12th (local time), a research team led by Professor Becky Conway-Campbell of the University of Bristol Medical School in the UK announced research results showing that night shift work causes changes in brain functions that regulate hormones controlling appetite, thereby promoting appetite.

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The research team focused on corticosteroid hormones secreted by the adrenal glands, which regulate various physiological functions such as metabolism and appetite.

Corticosteroid hormones are known to directly control a set of brain peptides that regulate appetitive behavior. Some peptides increase appetite, while others suppress it.

Through experiments on mice, the research team revealed that jet lag caused by circadian rhythm misalignment due to night shifts affects hormones that regulate appetite.

The team compared mice with aligned day-night rhythms to those with misaligned rhythms.

As a result, mice with misaligned day-night rhythms showed dysregulation of hypothalamic neuropeptides (NYT), leading them to consume relatively more food even during inactive periods.

Specifically, mice with aligned day-night rhythms ate 88.4% of their daily food intake during active periods and only 11.6% during inactive periods.

In contrast, mice with misaligned day-night rhythms consumed 53.8% of their daily food intake during inactive periods.

The amount of food consumed during inactive periods by mice with misaligned day-night rhythms was 4.6 times greater.

The research team explained that these results suggest that brain neuropeptides could be drug targets for treating eating disorders and obesity.

These research findings were published in the latest issue of the UK biological journal Communications Biology.

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