ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996 TAG: 9610290047
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Health Notes
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
OK, we "fell" back this past weekend. Daylight-saving time ended. We now go to work in the light and come home in the dark. We have no excuse for being late for work, but we do have one for not raking the leaves.
The pattern of switching between standard time and daylight-saving time is so much a part of life that most of us have forgotten why we do it. What we do know is that it takes some getting used to before our lives seem orderly again. The reason this happens is that we have messed with the routine of our bodies, our circadian (``circa"-about and "dies"-day) rhythms.
Shift workers know all about dealing with out-of-whack rhythms. So do cross-country airline travelers - especially those going from west to east, because it's easier to delay the body's schedule than to accelerate it.
The human body has a 24-hour clock set by an area of the brain called the suprachiasmatic (soo-prah-ki-az-MAT-ik) nuclei, according to the Mayo Clinic Health Letter. Sleep, temperature and hormone production are controlled by the body clock. A body doesn't just sleep when it's sleepy; it sleeps when its rhythm is right. This means the best sleep generally is in the early hours of the morning when the body temperature is lowest.
But outside influences, called zeitgebers (ZITE-ga-bers), also help the body stay on track. Daylight is a zeitgeber. Others are sleep, social contact and regular meal times, say the Mayo experts.
The medical profession is beginning to pay more attention to the human rhythm. Studies are looking at everything from when pain tolerance is greatest to when most heart attacks happen.
One study already showed that pain can be borne better in the afternoon, so that might be the best time to see the dentist, according to the Mayo report.
Chronobiology, which is the study of biological rhythms - the 24-hour day, the menstrual cycle in women and the year - and chronotherapeutics, which relates to giving special medications based on the body's rhythms, got attention earlier this year during an American Medical Association teleconference.
Speakers Gaston Labrecque, professor in the School of Pharmacy at Laval University in Quebec, Canada, and Dr. Michael Smolensky, professor at the University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health and director of the Hermann Center for Chronobiology and Chronotherapeutics, pointed out that many common disorders, such as angina, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, asthma, epilepsy, migraine and hypertension seem to be affected by cycles of the body.
For that reason, Labrecque advocates that medical professionals take the cycles into consideration when instructing patients on what time to take medicines. If, for example, it has been proved that the risk of an asthma attack is greatest when the patient is sleeping, then the patient needs medicine that works over a long period of time to keep the bronchial tubes open.
Rheumatoid arthritis is worse in the morning and could benefit from a once-a-day timed release medicine, Labrecque said. However, the discomfort from osteo-related arthritis, problems with the hip or knee, is greatest in mid-afternoon and early evening.
The time will come when medications will be formulated based on when during the body cycle they need to be most effective, the doctor said.
Not all medications can be adjusted for the cycle, however, Smolensky said. His other news is that the cycles seem to be genetic, so you can't necessarily do a whole lot with them. However, you can make them work more efficiently by keeping a regular routine.
You can do something, too, to offset artificial interference with your clock, according to the Mayo Clinic. People who work at night should have bright light, extra strong bright light that is 10 times stronger than indoor lighting. Also, night workers function best if they keep a routine of work-sleep-leisure than if they try work-leisure-sleep.
Gulf War illnesses
The government is searching for Gulf War veterans who may have been near Khamisiyah, Iraq, from March 4-15, 1991, when U.S. troops were destroying large quantities of ammunition. Apparently, chemical weapons may have been among the materials destroyed on March 4 and 10, and there is a possibility that the chemicals sarin and cyclosarin might be related to some of the illnesses Gulf War veterans are experiencing.
In August, the Department of Defense began contacting 1,168 service members who were assigned to units in the area on March in an effort to find out what kinds of medical problems they are having.
Now, the department is looking for veterans who may have been near a possible detonation on March 12, according to officials at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem. If you were at one of these locations or know someone who was, call the Persian Gulf Incident Hotline at 1-800-472-6719.
Veterans who are having health problems they believe are service-related should call the Comprehensive Clinical Evaluation Program at 1-800-796-9699.
Mental health symposium
"Practical Applications of Current Research in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Psychiatric Illnesses" will be discussed Friday at the 1996 Scientific Symposium of the Mental Health Association of Roanoke Valley. The daylong symposium also will focus on current research and treatment. It will feature a keynote address by Dr. William Glazer, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Other speakers will be coinge from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the University of Maryland School of Medicine, West Virginia University, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Topics include the use of new antipsychotics in treating patients with schizophrenia, diagnosing and treating obsessive-compulsive disorder and recognizing and treating panic and anxiety disorders.
The session costs $50 for association members and $60 for nonmembers and carries continuing-education credits for physicians.
Registration should be completed today. For information, call the association at 344-0931.
The pain of migraine
Migraines are on the agenda of the Nov. 7 community health lecture at Lewis-Gale Foundation in Salem. Dr. Timothy Hormel of the Lewis-Gale Clinic Department of Neurology will talk about what migraines are, who triggers them and how to treat them.
Call 540-774-4022 for registration.
To comment or recommend topics for this column, call Sandra Brown Kelly at 1-800-346-1234, Ext. 393, outside the Roanoke Valley, at 981-3393 in the valley or send electronic mail to biznews@roanoke.infi.net.
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