102 103 You’re saying there’s not a given circadian rhythm for everyone? You know people believe circadian rhythms exist to tell us what is the best time of the day to be occupied by certain kind of activities? I see many of these diagrams, and works… There’s no evidence for any of it. These are just anecdotes people believe in. One feature of our biology is that we are diurnal animal. We sleep at night and we are awake and functioning during the day. And all of this nonsense about 7 in the morning, noon, mid-afternoon, siesta and so on is just people making it up via an own anecdotic experience. It’s just crap. So what do you think about already healthy people who use this kind of crap to change their diets? These are just old wise tales about the idea you can ingest certain substances to modify your daily circadian rhythms. Although many people swear by this, what they are doing is just self-hypnosis. It’s psychosomatic. I say: «If you think so, and it does so, ok, it’s working, ironically! Even though the substance you are using is doing anything». So, I am fine with it. It doesn’t bother me. And you also studied core body temperature, why? Our temperature rhythm is a manifestation of our central clock functioning. One output of the clock is to regulate temperature changes. You may have heard that our core body temperature - biologically and not environmentally controlled, like in a lizard - is 37 °C. That’s false. Our temperature is constantly fluctuating. Grannies in Italy always said body temperature rise in the evening and descend in the morning. So they have been right all along? Well, actually our temperature goes to a much lower point in the middle of the night. The idea is: «Why burn energy to keep your temperature up for metabolic functions, when you’re lying in an asleep stupor?». But late in the night, before dawn, our clock causes a slow rise of our temperature core, to anticipate wake time. So, if you force yourself to get up at three o’ clock in the morning, your temperature is closer to the bottom, and this is collated to some behavioral and cognitive functions too. You just demolished a myth. As last question, we could at least give grannies some hope in change: in your opinion, will in future scientists be able to set an eternal biological clock, able to support eternal life? Aging is a number. All these appearance and internal functional features will dramatically change as you age. That’s senescence. And so, some of us - the younger ones - legitimately say: «Why there is senescence? Why don’t we live forever as long as we avoid infections, diseases, accidents, and we have nutrition and lodging?». But when senescence kicks in when you’re 50 or 60 or 70, when you’re clearly much older in many ways and much less functional than when you’re 20 or 30, then the longer you live the shorter is your life expectancy. That’s part of life’s rich tapestry. Nobody lives forever. There’s this great piece of dialogue from a famous American writer who’s dead. His name was William Saroyan. When he was literally on his death bed, he said to a friend: «Well, everybody has to die. But I always believed an exception would have been made in my case. Now what?». And then he died. Why do we undergo senescence, if we have a solid environmental support? There’s a lot of research on aging, but nobody understands why is there senescence and how it occurs. You may have heard the phrase, which is nowadays in vogue thanks to modern medicine and nutrition and all of that: «Hey, 50 is the new 40!». From my part, the way I look at it is: «Hey, 73 is the new 71!». If you’re now 50, you have made it to 50. Good for you. If you grow old and your life expectancy is way less than what it was 20 years ago, I say deal with it. Make the best of every day of background, from now on. That’s the best way to have in mind mortality. And to avoid it. O di Ólos O for Ólos
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