Made In China l QI l Oriental Express l Chinese Whispers l Resource Vantage Point l Critiques l Research l WellBeing Forum l Stories Vantage Point Pages 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 This is the modern version, being uncovered scientifically. (Weekend Australian Newspaper 25-26th May, 2002) 'TISSUE CLOCKS GIVEN BODY ITS CIRCADIAN RHYTHM Your heart's beat isn't its only pulse, scientists have discovered. The heart's genes - and the liver's too - have rhythms of their own. Every animal has built-in biological clocks that keep the body in step with the rising and setting of the sun. Sleepiness, blood pressure, body temperature and mental ability all fluctuate predictably over 24 hours thanks to a master clock in the brain and secondary clocks in other body tissues. A new study shows that the clocks in the heart and liver are driving about 10 percent of these organs' genetic activity, with genes cycling on and off at certain times of day. Understanding what rhythmic genes do in these and other organs could help scientists understand what makes people feel sleepy at night, hungry during the day, and plain lousy after traveling across too many time zones. "This is opening up a new world of information that wasn't expected," said Chuck Weitz, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston who led the study. "This is the first attempt at figuring out what the clocks in each tissue do."  Contact Michael | © AustralianAcupuncture.com 2002 I About AustralianAcupuncture.com

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