Harness Your Circadian Rhythm: Health & Longevity | Prof. Satchin Panda | The Proof Podcast EP

In today's fast-paced world, we're all striving for better health, often focusing on diet, exercise, and mindfulness. But what if the secret to optimal wellbeing lies in aligning our lives with our natural circadian rhythms? In Episode #280, I'm joined by Satchin Panda, a pioneering researcher in circadian biology, to unpack the often-overlooked importance of “when”: when we eat, sleep, and put our screens down. Tune in to discover how you can harness your body's internal clock for a healthier, more balanced life.
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Dr Satchin Panda is a Professor at the Salk Institute in California. With a focus on circadian regulation of behaviour, physiology, and metabolism, Dr Panda's research offers key insights into how our internal clocks affect our health. His studies range from identifying the role of blue-light sensing cells in the retina to investigating the benefits of time-restricted feeding for metabolic diseases. With a range of awards and an ongoing smartphone-based study on circadian disruption, Dr Panda brings both academic rigour and practical knowledge to our discussion today.
In this episode, we discuss:
0:00 - Introduction
1:55 - Understanding Circadian Rhythms: Do They Influence Longevity?
6:20 - The Role of the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) in Circadian Rhythms
10:33 - Cellular-Level Circadian Clocks: An Overview
15:56 - A Comprehensive Look at Circadian Disruption
26:39 - Effective Strategies for Managing Jet Lag
29:17 - The Impact of Blue Light on Circadian Rhythms
33:42 - Criteria for Diagnosing Circadian Rhythm Disorders
34:58 - Sensitivity Factors of Circadian Rhythms
39:30 - The Significance of Meal Timing in Circadian Rhythms
43:41 - Circadian Rhythms: Their Relation to Cholesterol and Blood Pressure
46:49 - Exploring the Link Between Circadian Disruption, DNA Damage, and Cancer Risk
49:34 - Circadian Disruption and Its Role in Chronic Disease Risk
55:22 - Time-Restricted Eating and Metabolic Health
1:06:09 - Outro
Connect with Dr Satchin Panda:
- Twitter/X: / satchinpanda
- Profile: www.salk.edu/scientist/satchi...
- Book, The Circadian Code: amzn.asia/d/99Sp2b4
- Book, The Circadian Diabetes Code: amzn.asia/d/0qG39Xi
- myCircadianClock: mycircadianclock.org/
If you have any additional questions you would like answered in the future, let me know in the comments.
Optimise your health with InsideTracker’s biomarker analysis. Get exclusive access to InsideTracker’s new ApoB test, and a significant discount at insidetracker.com/simon.
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Enjoy, friends.
Simon
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[@lindac6147]

This is very exciting ! I’ve been WFPB for 7 years and now have borderline high blood pressure . 140/90 I’m not overweight . I exercise . I’m hoping that TRE will be a magic bullet for my BP🙏

[@catherinebell122]

Very helpful to understand how we mess up our overall health here in America, even if we are WFPB. Excellent questions and informative responses from the Professor. Looking forward to the 2nd interview. Thank you!

[@janeschade7875]

Absolutely loved this video! Proof Satchin Panda is so relatable ! Simon I really enjoyed your questions because those were the ones that I could really relate to . FYI I have been on an eight hour feeding window for close to 10 years it’s never caused me a problem from 12 till 8 PM.

[@samanthab5006]

As a new mom to a 3 month old I can definitely relate to the idea of circadian rhythm disruption. I have found though that when my baby adopts a regular nursing schedule at night after a few days I wake up in the middle of the night around those times even if the baby didn't. It's much easier once this happens as long as we're in sync. Lately he's started randomly having longer stretches of sleep but not consistently so despite him sleeping for a longer stretch I actually sleep worse because I end up being awake anyway and can't easily relax until he nurses. I'm sure this is partially due to very full breasts but I'm also mentally alert more than when he wakes me at an odd time.

[@char2304]

A wonderful presentation 👏🏼 Thank you Simon 😊

[@TheProofWithSimonHill]

Hi Friends, Curious to know - which part of our recent conversation did you find the most engaging? Also, if there are any other questions you have in mind about this topic, just leave them below. I'll ensure they're included in our next chat.

[@RussellDeacon]

This was a valuable one for me. I suffer fairly extreme sleep procrastination and have those auto immune and cholesterol issues. I may well awe my life to this one if I can sort myself out. I would like to say that blue light only accounts for 1pc of the variance in clinical sleep disturbance.

[@heidizee5144]

Wonderful episode!Simon, I’d appreciate knowing if optimal intermittent fasting windows are different for males vs females. Somewhere recently, I saw the suggestion from research that women may experience an increase in LDL cholesterol if fasting exceeds 14 hours, but that didn’t seem to apply to males. Thanks for asking the thoughtful, nuanced questions that give us information to improve our health and vibrance.

[@MrSunnyBhoy]

Great info and advice. But unfortunately, in the world of work when you are a slave 9-5 and have to then commute home, then gym, it's basically impossible for me to eat before 9pm. I'd love to but only way I can do that is to either not go to the gym which really isn't an option, or to go before work which would involve getting to the gym for 545. So not sure how I can manage that...

[@furiousdoe7779]

With sooo many people walking the life of unwanted irregular work why don’t Mr Panda do more investigation on humans instead of on mice instead . Why is there not one place on the web where companies and people who have to work these irregular hour to let them be informed how to improve their lives …even though they have to endure these cancer risks .

[@brendafosmire6519]

Sad his audio is so odd. Hard to hear with the echo around the speaker.

[@leniolesch896]

As always I learnt a lot. But a few questions are unanswered for me: 1. What is the scientific basis for the night shift definition? For exemple, I sleep from approx 9pm to 4:45am. So I’m a night shift worker? And a lot of people wake up at 7am. Adding 7-8 hours of sleep means they go to bed at 11 or 12… 2. Time restricting eating sounds all so great but I still don’t understand the effects on hormones. I’m female and very active. Doing intensive exercise fasted to comply with TRE raises cortisol levels. These are harmful for bone health. Also missing periods etc. A lot of confusion. 3. Finally, say I want to fly from Europe to Australia. Is it better to go straight and adapt to the huge time difference or to stop somewhere in Asia and stay there for a few days?

[@RussellDeacon]

It's more important to eat to fuel activity than to milk the circadian benefit, however we should ask ourselves why so much exercise is important to us because health benefits ain it. Excess exercise is an addictive tranquilising behaviour that stops us banding together and pursuing revolution.

[@eliteboxfitness]

He shares that the night shift definition is led by our circadian clock which has been around for thousands of year with the day and night cycle. Thus if we are up when the body is primed to be sleeping , in our current society with people working at various house due to the advanet of being able to light up wheevr we need even in the evening . Yet the body is producing melatonin I. The night time and suppressing I sulin so those eating around those night shift times generally will experience physiological challenges in the long run He said if you're doing this 4x a month ie once or twice a week we can be classed as shift workers and fall I that threshold. In terms of restricting food while being active in order to stick to tre it won't make logical sense and will bedetrimentsl if you're very active and not receiving sufficient nutrition a nd calories . So either extend your feeding window or activity around it. Either way it's am I dovidualised thing and do wsht works for ones schedule but shouldn't be I a. Calorie deficit in the lo g term bevssue you're trying to stick to tre when training. Increase your calories during your windo if that's the case.

[@eliteboxfitness]

In terms of flying 1 hour will require 1 day adjustment roughly . Breaking up the trip if you have the kixiry to do that can helpful . Eat on the local time schedule always and train at a responsible tim ie not crazy close to local sleep time

[@Aquapumpkin]

Which one of your videos would be best to show (to spark discussion) to someone who is staunchly in the ‘low fat’ version of WFPB? (Eg McDouall dieter) Thanks

[@pwcrabb5766]

I can understand only half of this person's speech due to imprecise articulation.

[@Chris90.]

not only that, but he didn't have a proper mic as well from what it looked like to speak into. audio quality was poor as a result. sounds like he's talking into a fish bowl.

[@chuckleezodiac24]

you'll get used to it. after about 10 or 20 hrs.

[@kst157]

It’s 90% fine so I do quick rewinds on those bits not as clearly spoken. Yes, better audio equipment would likely benefit. Very wise words and a real expert so I’m keen and eager to hear what the Professor says.

[@Chris90.]

it would benefit. look at Simon's equipment set up, listen to Simon, then look at Panda's, and listen to him. @@kst157

[@BlahBlahPoop617]

Testing out audio quality before recording is essential

[@Chris90.]

I'm sorry, but I could barely understand a damn word he said.

[@BlahBlahPoop617]

Most of what this guy says with regard to the bodies rhymes and human health outcomes is largely/HIGHLY speculative. That is not to say that there isn’t any evidence that the bodies circadian rhythms correlate with health markers, and influence some, but this guy is just making all kinds of claims that haven’t been proven as of yet.

[@immers2410]

Is he? What unproven claims is he making?