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Scientists Find Mechanism to Reset Body Clock
Submitted by Melinda L. Secor on Sun, 2014-03-23 01:00
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"Researchers have discovered a new mechanism that governs how body clocks react to changes in the environment. The discovery could provide a solution for alleviating the detrimental effects of chronic shift work and jet-lag."
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According to the article, the enzyme does not itself reset the body clock. It just makes the body more responsive to those triggers. One such trigger for resynchronizing the circadian body-clock is to shine bright light into the eyes with a significant blue component.
This stimulates the melanopsin in retinal ganglion cells, which triggers, among other things, pupillary dilation and contraction, and circadian response. Peak response for this pigment is 485-495 nm, which is a greenish-blue or cyan color. To the body, unaware of technology, this indicates that the sun has risen high enough in the sky for its blue component to still be significant after atmospheric scattering. If the sky is blue, it must be daytime.