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Jie-Mo
SCRIBBLES
ON
THE
HUMAN
BIOLOGICAL CLOCK
The
biological clock is obvious
in
all creatures. Different flowers bloom-
ing
at
specific times
enables
a "flower
clock" to tell the time. ln humans,
apart
from
bowel opening
times
and the
sleep/wake cycles (basis of "jet-lag"),
there are other diurnal variations of the
pulse, blood pressure, blood counts,
etc.
When
we
sleep,
almost
all
organs
in
the body (except the
liver)
slow down
considerably
(so
that we do
not have
to
get
up
to
pass urine
every
2 hours or
so!).
ln
the middle
of
the night, muscles
relax;
the blood pressure, the pulse and
respiration rates
are
low.
Closer to
dawn, the body prepares
for
waking up
- at around 6 am,
the
blood pressure
and pulse increases;
by 9
am, the peak
working capacity
is
reached
(that
is
why
employers schedule work
from
9
am!).
After
a
hard
day's
work, the blood pres-
sure is highest at 7 pm and our mental
lunction
deteriorates. Thus, the 6-7 pm
session should
be
the last one of the
working
day,
otherwise
our health may
be affected. Although
the
biological
clock is so obvious in our
daily
life,
the
specific application of the clock
in
medicine, e.9.,
the
best
time
in
the day
for
giving chemotherapy agents
for
can-
cer
treatment
is
still
much debated.
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