Disrupting Your Muscle’s Internal Clock Can Lead to Muscle Loss - AI Podcast

Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health

Briana Mercola

Health & Fitness, Health, Alternative Health

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Story at-a-glance

Skeletal muscles have their own circadian clocks that regulate daily cycles of growth, repair, energy production, and protein turnover
A recent study found that disabling these peripheral clocks in the muscles caused premature aging, reduced strength, slower movement, and other signs consistent with sarcopenia
These findings help explain why shift workers often experience early muscle decline, as disrupted rhythms interfere with the body’s natural overnight repair processes
Light is the most powerful timing cue for your internal clocks, with morning sunlight helping anchor circadian rhythms and exposure to blue light at night disrupting melatonin and recovery
Meal timing and consistent sleep schedules also help reinforce muscle clock function and support long-term strength and resilience

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Dr. Mercola's Cellular Wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy-to-listen
0:06.1	summaries of our latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go. No reading required. Subscribe
0:11.2	for free at Mercola.com for the latest health insights.
0:14.2	Are your muscles secretly accelerating toward weakness because their internal clocks
0:20.4	are out of sync with your day.
0:22.1	Hello, and welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom.
0:25.6	You're about to learn how every skeletal muscle fiber runs on its own circadian rhythm,
0:30.5	independent of your brain, and why neglecting that schedule can speed aging slash strength
0:35.5	and leave consistent workouts feeling surprisingly ineffective.
0:39.3	A recent King's College London study disabled the core clock gene exclusively in zebrafish
0:44.3	muscles. The fish seemed normal early on, yet by two years they were shorter, lighter, and swimming
0:50.3	more slowly, hallmarks of sarcopenia that shift workers often encounter decades
0:55.6	too soon.
0:56.7	The turning point was the first lost night of repair.
0:59.7	In healthy muscle, daylight drives growth, but darkness cues a cleanup shift that removes
1:04.2	damaged proteins, recycles worn parts, and clears cellular waste.
1:09.1	Break that cadence and yesterday's debris lingers, undermining today's
1:12.6	power. Researchers pinpointed two stalled cleanup crews, autophagy and the ubiquitin proteasum system.
1:20.1	Both normally shred defective proteins overnight. When the muscle clock failed, those systems
1:25.3	idled, so waist stacked up, fibers weakened, and performance fell.
1:30.5	They also uncovered a regulatory imbalance.
1:33.9	Roar needed to start nighttime repair, plunged while Rev Herb remained high,
	...

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