Time-restricted diet boosts health of long-shift workers

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
18 Apr 2023 15:24

A new study found that changing to time-restricted eating can help long shift workers manage prevalent yet preventative diseases.

A firefighter walks near the scene where a building collapsed, in Marseille, southern France, on April 10, 2023. (AP)

A recent study found that time-restricted eating (TRE) lowered the risks of heart disease associated with shift work for firefighters and enhanced their overall health.

Previously, it was noted that working lengthy shifts, sometimes lasting up to 24 hours, may contribute to a range of health problems, such as an increase in both diabetes and heart attacks.

However, the risks were reduced for firemen who adhered to a time-restricted eating diet in which the time of day defines when a person can eat, in this instance, 10 hours per day.

The new findings published in the Cell Metabolism journal, according to researchers, could help anyone who worked long hours, including military personnel, nurses, transportation drivers, as well as new parents who struggle with chaotic schedules.

The researchers also discovered that TRE benefited individuals with cardiometabolic illness, a collection of prevalent but largely avoidable disorders that includes heart attack, stroke, diabetes, insulin resistance, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

"Overall, firefighters are a pretty healthy group of people, but we found that TRE had some benefit for those who had underlying cardiometabolic risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and hyperglycemia, especially in terms of improvement in glucose levels and blood pressure," said co-corresponding author Professor Pam Taub, a cardiologist at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

During the monitoring process which lasted about two weeks, all of the participants were urged to adopt a Mediterranean diet full of fresh produce, whole grains, and heart-healthy fats.

Monitoring difficulties

The unavailability of volunteers to visit the lab during regular business hours has been a hurdle to managing research studies involving shift workers. However, the research group got around the problem by visiting the fire stations and fitting the subjects with wearable devices to record their activity, sleep, and blood glucose levels.

During the monitoring process, which lasted about two weeks, all of the participants were urged to adopt a Mediterranean diet full of fresh produce, whole grains, and heart-healthy fats. The unavailability of volunteers to visit the lab during regular business hours has been a hurdle to managing research studies involving shift workers.

However, the research group got around the problem by visiting the fire stations and fitting the subjects with wearable devices to record their activity, sleep, and blood glucose levels.

Additionally, they created an app that the firemen could use to track their meals, sleep, and responses to the research surveys. The app also allowed the researchers to transmit study materials and instruct the participants in implementing the advised lifestyle.

According to Taub, "Even those who were healthy with no underlying cardiometabolic risk factors had improvements in quality of life and in VLDL, which is a form of bad cholesterol."

The time-restricted eating pattern was "safe and feasible," according to the study's findings, given that participants reported no adverse effects on their ability to focus or respond quickly while their overall quality of life improved.