Chronobiology and Chronomics Honor Douglas Wilson. Neither Calories Nor Anything Else are Equal at Breakfast and Dinner or Along Other Time Scales

ABSTRACT

To honor Douglas Wilson, this paper reviews evidence for studying and quantifying rhythms as the indispensable control, whether to assess the effect of a fixed-calorie meal taken as breakfast or dinner, or to understand how human physiology and pathology may be affected by space-terrestrial weather. Since D. Wilson’s work has dealt intensively with salivary hormonal determinations, we illustrate what can be learned from longitudinal series obtained in health or from a patient suffering from adynamic depression episodes recurring twice a year and lasting 2-3 months. The socially less unacceptable collection of serial salivary samples should be introduced more broadly into laboratory medicine for a more refined diagnosis and as a means to guide the optimization of any needed treatment by timing.

Keywords: