title: Obesity and metabolic syndrome: association with chronodisruption, sleep deprivation, and melatonin suppression.
abstract: Obesity has become an epidemic in industrialized and developing countries. In 30 years, unless serious changes are made, a majority of adults and many children will be classified as overweight or obese. Whereas fatness alone endangers physiological performance of even simple tasks, the associated co-morbidity of obesity including metabolic syndrome in all its manifestations is a far more critical problem. If the current trend continues as predicted, health care systems may be incapable of handling the myriad of obesity-related diseases. The financial costs, including those due to medical procedures, absenteeism from work, and reduced economic productivity, will jeopardize the financial well-being of industries. The current review summarizes the potential contributions of three processes that may be contributing to humans becoming progressively more overweight: circadian or chronodisruption, sleep deficiency, and melatonin suppression. Based on the information provided in this survey, life-style factors (independent of the availability of abundant calorie-rich foods) may aggravate weight gain. Both epidemiological and experimental data support associations between disrupted physiological rhythms, a reduction in adequate sleep, and light-at-night-induced suppression of an essential endogenously produced molecule, melatonin. The implication is that if these problems were corrected with life-style changes, body-weight could possibly be more easily controlled.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular and Structural Biology, UT Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas, USA. reiter@uthscsa.edu
authors.forename: Russel J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Reiter
authors.forename: Dun-Xian
authors.initials: DX
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Korkmaz
authors.forename: Shuran
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D021081:Chronobiology Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light / Q000009:adverse effects; D008550:Melatonin / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000502:physiology; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D051379:Mice; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D051381:Rats; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000453:epidemiology*
chemical_list: D008550:Melatonin