Eating late influences fertility

Eating late at night packs on the pounds. And it may be influencing our fertility as well.

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have published a report in Cell Metabolism which shows that, at least for fruit flies, late night dining increases infertility. Once they manipulated the flies circadian rhythms, they were able to test the results of their egg-laying production.

The lead author of the report, Amita Sehgal, PhD, John Herr user Professor of Neuroscience, didn’t hesitate to stress though that human conclusions could be made from the fruit fly study. Nevertheless there is reason now to study the link between diet, human circadian rhythms and fertility.

“I wouldn’t say eating at the wrong time of the day makes people less fertile, though that is the implication,” stressed Sehgal, “I would say that eating at the wrong time of the day has deleterious consequences for physiology.”

Disruption of animal biology cycles often effects multiple symptoms of the body. Disrupted sleep for instance can affect everything from weight to brain chemistry and resulting depression.

“Circadian desynchrony caused by feeding at the ‘wrong’ time of day leads to a defect in overall reproductive capacity,” the research concluded. The next question will be where is the mechanism that controls the phenomenon: how does body fat communicate with the ovaries, even in humans.

Source: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Medical News Today