An enzyme that protects our skin against harmful radiation from the Sun is damaged if we eat dinner too late, as well as increasing the probability of premature aging of the skin and skin cancer. This appears to happen because maintaining abnormal feeding rhythms disrupts the skin’s biological clock .
The study that suggests this was conducted by Joseph S. Takahashi , a neuroscientist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. And at least it happens with mice.
What time to have dinner?
The study concluded that mice fed only during the day, which is an abnormal feeding rhythm for these nocturnal animals, suffered more skin damage when exposed to ultraviolet light during the day than at night. Contrary to the normal feeding rhythm in humans, which corresponds to the hours of sunshine.
The new study, published in Cell Reports , suggests the relevance of feeding times. The researchers focused on this factor because it was already known to affect the daily cycles of metabolic organs, such as the liver. Still , it is still difficult to extrapolate these results to humans , and more research is needed to better understand the links between eating patterns and UV damage in people. Image | Gonmi