York University biological rhythms expert available to explain how internal clock works
TORONTO, October 30, 2019 – When Canadians turn back their clocks one hour at 2 a.m. this Sunday, November 3, many will experience a shock to their bodies’ internal clock much like the jet lag experienced after flying across time zones, according to Patricia Lakin-Thomas, associate professor in the Department of Biology in York University’s Faculty of Science.
Lakin-Thomas is a leading expert on cell biology and chronobiology, the study of biological rhythms in living organisms, who strongly supports abolishing Daylight Saving Time.
She believes that a return of Standard Time throughout the year would be better for our health and well-being, pointing to research that shows a disrupted internal clock can cause increased rates of car accidents, heart attacks, strokes, weight gain, anxiety and workplace injuries.
Lakin-Thomas has conducted extensive research on the biological clocks that drive circadian rhythms in bacteria, plants, fungi and animals. Her goal is to describe the mechanism of a circadian clock at the molecular and biochemical level. An active member of the Canadian Society for Chronobiology, Lakin-Thomas teaches Physiology of Circadian Timing and has written or co-written more than 30 journal articles, including Circadian rhythms, metabolic oscillators, and the target of rapamycin (TOR) pathway: the Neurospora connection, published in April.
She can comment on:
- What happens in human bodies during time switches for Daylight Saving Time
- How internal body clocks affect our physiology and behaviour
- The importance of biological clocks in our lives and what happens when they’re out of whack
- How human circadian clocks work at the molecular and biochemical level
- Why year-round Standard Time is better for us than year-round Daylight Saving Time
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