ClockNews

Kinder, Gentler Chemotherapy:

"Every drug has an optimal time when it is least toxic and most effective," says Dr. Block. "For cancer treatment, this is determined by several factors, including the biological uniqueness of the particular drug being given, the time when the specific type of cancer cells divide the most, when the normal healthy cells of the patient generally divide the least, the patient’s circadian clock and individual rest-activity cycles, and even the time zone the person resides in."

"We have found that often patients receiving their chemotherapy this way reduce what would have been recurring side effects of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and fatigue," explained Dr. Block cofounder and Medical/Scientific Director of the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care, and Director of Integrative Medicine Program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. This is important because the debilitation caused by chemo can cause patients to reduce or even stop treatments that could otherwise help them win their battle with cancer." In fact, current research shows that up to 1/3 of chemotherapy patients abandon treatments prematurely due to the side effects.

Don't blame the other woman, she says:

Couples often don't consider that their libidos may be on incompatible circadian rhythms, but it's not unusual.

Forest Hill High to test 9 a.m. school-day start:

In fact, recent research finds that teenagers are not unlike narcoleptics at that time in the morning. In lab tests, teenagers fell asleep quickly and into the deep REM sleep state, said Mary Carskadon, the Brown University professor who conducted the study.

Carskadon said teenagers' circadian rhythms — essentially, their internal clocks — along with distractions such as the Internet make it difficult for them to go to bed before 10:30 or 11 p.m. That means they usually don't get enough sleep before early classes.

"It's a double whammy," Carskadon said. "They're not getting enough sleep to recharge their brains, and we're asking their brains to be on duty at the wrong time."