The production of stress hormones at night disrupts the fat balance, which leads to weight gain.. It is the time when you experience stress that is very important.. Failure of circadian rhythms is a trigger for the appearance of excess weight. When people experience chronic stress, take hormone medications at night, work the night shift, or take long flights, cortisol is released at the wrong time.. This causes the formation of new fat cells, especially in the abdomen, according to the Daily Mail..

Researchers led by Mary Teruel, assistant professor of chemical and systems biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, USA, were puzzled by the natural and well-known process by which our bodies produce fat cells..

In the human body, there are so-called progenitor cells that are in an intermediate state between an undifferentiated stem cell and a fully differentiated one.. They turn into fat cells, which leads to an increase in body weight..

In a healthy person, the body converts no more than 1% of its progenitor cells into fat cells and does this with the help of glucocorticoid hormones..

As explained by M. Teruel and colleagues in their paper, human glucocorticoid levels naturally rise and fall throughout the day, and are regulated according to our circadian rhythms.. But the production of these hormones can also be boosted by external factors such as short-term or long-term stress..

However, this process raised a number of additional questions among scientists.. “Why don’t we drown in fat every time glucocorticoid levels rise in the morning due to normal circadian rhythms, after exercise, or when moving from warm to cold? And why the normal rhythm of glucocorticoid secretion is disrupted - for example, under conditions of chronic stress or sleep disorders? " Teruel.

To find out the answers, scientists conducted several experiments.. In the first of these, the team " They calculated how many progenitor cells turned into fat cells. The scientists found that one 48-hour pulse of hormones caused most of the cells to turn into fat cells, while shorter pulses led to minimal cell differentiation..

Finally, the scientists tested whether the identified circadian code also worked in mammals.. Over the course of 21 days, they increased glucocorticoid levels in a group of mice and compared their body weight to that of a control group of rodents..

The experiment showed that in mice with elevated levels of glucocorticoids, body weight doubled compared to the control group..

This, as scientists have found, is due not only to the production of new fat cells, but also to the growth of existing ones..

According to M. Teruel, these results explain why glucocorticoid treatment (in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and asthma) is associated with weight gain and may suggest ways to combat this condition.. So, if you take glucocorticoids or experience stress only during the day, then the increase in body weight will stop or will not be so pronounced..

aspect. net.