Are you an early bird or a late riser? It's in your hair!

How does this happen? Well, a new study shows that the specific genes that are responsible for keeping our "body clocks" regulated are identified in hair-follicle cells. The suprachiasmatic nucleus, a small function located in our brain, controls the the body clock. RNA strands pass the signals from that part of our brain throughout the body in a 24 hour time period. In addition to the RNA strands being in our hair, they are also found in white blood cells and the inside of the mouth. Hair-follicle RNA stands, however, are the easiest to test. To conduct the experiment, a man named Makoto Akashi and his co-workers from the Research Institute for Time Studies at Yamaguchi University in Japan, pulled head and beard hairs from four subjects, the humans, which had stated their usual and preferred time for getting up the next day and eating schedules. These were done at three-hour intervals. The subjects had also practiced their schedules for nine days prior to the experiment. The results concluded that the brain allows the genes to "turn on" at different times in different people. Could this give us health warnings? Different routines of the body despite our gene implanted body clock, has been linked and implied to high blood pressure, diabetes, even cancer. Shift workers are thought to be at a greater risk for the disorder of body clocks, it is suggested that they live in jet lag. Lastly, this study could even be seen as a warning, Akashi stated "I hope that our method will be used for regular health checks in schools and companies to keep healthy clocks."

The biology included in this study discussed in the article is what created it in the first place. Biology enforces the human body, and merely brain, which controls everything we do. If we are "playing" with it, it could have harmful effects. These body clocks found in our genes, were created to regulate our body in a specific way. We aren't aware that our sleep and waking up routines could have such a different aspect as to the damage they may cause. It is important to continue to test and experiment, using science and biology to further this study and the other million out there.

Who would've thought? Since it is brought up as sort of a warning, now we may be more cautious and want to find out more about this. I support the idea of this testing to be conducted in hospitals and schools, to let us know our body's plans, and how we may affect it. The harmful health effects mentioned in the article scares many of us, and we certainly wouldn't want it happening. So why not be educated in this and continue to look out for any notice.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/08/100823-sleep-genes-body-clock-science-health/