Time Restricted Eating

The basis of most medical school training is the information found in textbooks, with little emphasis on current academic research happening in real time. The two fields are widely separated: medicine on one side and academic scientific research on the other. Research makes breakthroughs every single day, but they may take years—if not decades—to manifest as new treatment protocols that directly benefit patients. Yet, trail-blazing publications coming from the world of academic research are what eventually become known and accepted as common practice. Circadian biology is a great example: it is a relatively young field, but its breakthroughs are already helping us to unlock the complex formula of metabolism. According to traditional medical textbooks, the basic formula of metabolism is that calories in equals calories out, with a side note mentioning the ketosis pathway. Overall, it implies that obesity and related diseases are caused simply by over-consumption and under-utilization of energy—in other words, it is primarily caused by overeating and a lack of exercise. This formula is simple and exact; there was no way around it. It has been reinforced in the past by popular diets, with their focus on eliminating certain food groups or severely reducing total caloric intake. Indeed, the world of weight loss is and always has been driven by these two long standing beliefs, and current medical advice is largely consistent with them. I shared this misguided belief right up until the day I came across a study published in 2012 out of Dr. Satchin Panda’s lab at the Salk Institute in San Diego. When I read this elegantly designed study, my entire understanding of metabolism was fundamentally changed—and I nearly fell out of my chair when I realized I would never have to forgo cheesecake again! I hope that the following case studies, as compiled from patients in our collaborative study between Mercy Medical Group and the Salk Institute, will help you to see the outcomes that are possible when this new and groundbreaking research from Dr. Satchin Panda’s academic world is applied to real people. What was once deemed impossible is now possible. The simplistic formula previously framing the view of the medical world regarding obesity has become archaic. Patients from our ongoing study illustrate how, when given the right strategy, they can overcome their “diagnoses” and turn them into opportunities. For many, these are significant opportunities to reverse disease, drive up metabolism, and dramatically improve their quality of life. These few case studies represent what tremendous new possibilities await us, and how a dramatic paradigm shift is in progress when it comes to how obesity and its related diseases can be treated. It is through the application of academic research from teams of circadian biologists like those in Dr. Panda’s lab that we have now begun to see what we as physicians have been missing all along: a beautiful internal pathway of timing within each of us that, once harnessed, allows the body itself to do nearly all of the work of enhancing health—with the side benefit of weight loss! The ultimate benefit of increased metabolism, and the improvement of all processes and pathways within the body: this is the potential of Time Restricted Eating. I hope that these patient cases will inspire you to harness this new knowledge of the circadian system within you, to improve your health, your immune system, and to ultimately reduce unnecessary energy stores that are inhibiting your organs from functioning optimally.