On The Dhru Purohit Podcast, Dhru sits down with Dr. Satchin Panda to dive deep into his groundbreaking circadian biology research and how leveraging your circadian rhythm can dramatically improve your sleep, lower your risk of chronic disease, and improve your cognitive function. They also discuss how time-restricted eating, exercise, and light can be used to help program your circadian rhythm and why it’s especially important for shift workers to take advantage of these tools.
Dr. Panda is pioneering circadian biology research. He is a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, a Pew Biomedical Scholar, founder of the UC San Diego Center for Circadian Biology, and recipient of the Julie Martin Mid-Career Award in Aging Research. Dr. Panda has spoken at conferences around the world about his work on circadian rhythms and diabetes, including Diabetes UK, the American Diabetes Association, the Danish Diabetes Association, and the professional diabetes societies of Europe and Australia.
In this episode, Dhru and Dr. Panda dive into:
- Why late-night eating is so detrimental to our health
- Organ systems that have a circadian rhythm
- Common ailments that could be related to circadian rhythm disturbances
- Night-shift work and cancer risk
- How poor sleep perpetuates bad food choices
- What happens in the body when you rely on an alarm clock
- Why you need to accumulate sleep debt for better sleep
- Time-restricted eating and sleep
- How to combat fragmented sleep
- The best time to work out
- The link between exercise and cancer
- Positive changes for better sleep health on a global scale
- Strategies for night-shift workers to combat circadian rhythm disruption
- Dr. Panda’s research in firefighters
- Tips for optimizing your circadian rhythm
- Where to follow and support Satchin’s work