Potential health and well-being impacts of discontinuing seasonal changes of time

1. Potential health and well-being impacts of discontinuing seasonal changes of time Darío Acuña-Castroviejo University of Granada, Spain Brussels, 21/01/2019 Presentation for the Committee on Transport and Tourism

2. Structure of the Presentation • How the living beings function • How DST impacts health • First expert statement publication on DST deleterious effects Presentation for the Committee on Transport and Tourism

3. 1. How the living beings function Biological clocks coordinately keep life on time: • Master clock controls the adaptation of the human body to the environment • The human body contains 30 billions of biological clocks • Circadian timing system comprises a complex network between master (central) and peripheral clocks • Master clock maintains the harmony of the human body through melatonin, which sets the peripheral clocks Presentation for the Committee on Transport and Tourism

4. Biological clocks coordinately keep life on time 2017 Nobel Prize Pineal JC Hall M Rosbash MW Young Cell cycle, apoptosis DNA repair Drug metabolism and detoxification Angiogenesis ... We are 30 billions of biological clocks running in harmony!!! Presentation for the Committee on Transport and Tourism

5. Biological clocks coordinately keep life on time STANDBY CLOCK GMT 0 Peripheral clocks = master clock = sun hours Master clock Pineal Brain Heart Melatonin Liver Blood Pancreas Melatonin peak at 3 am Muscle Immune system Any other organ Presentation for the Committee on Transport and Tourism

6. 2. How DST impacts health Dissociation between environmental light and biological clocks: • DST change is not immediately transduced to the biological clocks • Sunrise and sunset times remain the same, but clocks time changed • The resultant chronodisruption, i.e., dissociation between environmental time and biological clock time affects the organism in multiple forms • There are times of risk to suffer disease that are regulated by circadian machinery acting on a complex clusters of genes Presentation for the Committee on Transport and Tourism

7. Desynchronization of peripheral clocks DST CHANGE IN FALL ≠ Peripheral clocks = master clock sun hours GMT +1 Pineal Master clock CHRONODISRUPTION Mental health disorders Brain Heart diseases Melatonin Heart Liver Obesity one-hour turn the clock back Blood Pancreas Diabetes Melatonin peak at 3 am Muscle Weakness Immune system Inflammation Any organ Cancer Presentation for the Committee on Transport and Tourism

8. Dissociation between environmental light and biological clocks Get up and go to bedonehourlater in closeassociation to onehour of delay in thesunrise and sunsetrespect to subjectiveinternal time (SIT) Thispromotes a phase-delaywhichacceleratesoursynchronization Traveling one hour to West Brussels: UTC+1 London: UTC+0 Thus, wewill be exposed to more light in themorning and less in theafternoon, favouring a phase-advancethatcounteractsourrapidsynchronisation We will get up and go to bed also an hour later, but the sunset and sunrise will continue at the same time with respect to SIT Hour change in Fall Brussels: UTC+1 Traveling one hour to East, similar to the DST in March, yields a similar pattern of behavior Presentation for the Committee on Transport and Tourism

9. Clinical, observational and epidemiological studies Human beings are exposedeither to rhythmicvariations in thesusceptibility to morbid and mortal events, and to theability of temporal changes of cardiovascular mechanisms to precipitatetheovertexpression of disease = chronorisk. Meal time, bloodpressure, alertness, attention, time forimmuneprotection, brainneurotransmitters, time forbeingwise as the prefrontal cortex, so relevantforcriticaljudgement, isinfluencedbycircadianregulation. As anexample, cardiovascular eventstogetherwith stress exhibitanevidentmorning preference = more heartattack at morningafter DST. DST triggerschanges in clock genes that in turnaffecttheimmunesystem, leading to inflammatorydiseasesor to increase of theseverity of their symptoms = allergies, rheumatoidarthritis, aging-relateddiseases. Celldivisionisstronglyconnected to thebiologicalclock, sufferingconsequenceswheninternal time disruptiveevents occur = enhanced PASD1 and cancer. ... Presentation for the Committee on Transport and Tourism

10. Clinical, observational and epidemiological studies 1. There is sufficient scientific literature showing the adverse impact of the DST on different levels of circadian timing system, either related to circadian master clock and multiple peripheral oscillators from which depends adequate organic function. 2. Since there is evidence on the potentially negative effects of DST-related disruption of circadian timing system associated to several negative health outcomes, DST cannot be encouraged and therefore should be discontinued. Presentation for the Committee on Transport and Tourism

11. Four possibilities UTC+1,+2 (withseasonalchange) UTC+1 (NO seasonalchange) UTC+2 (NO seasonalchange) UTC+0,+1 (withseasonalchange) Presentation for the Committee on Transport and Tourism