Washington, Jan 11 (IANS) Upsetting circadian rhythms, the bio-clocks found in animals and humans, can cause brain degeneration, loss of motor function and premature death.

Until this finding, it wasn’t clear which came first — whether the disruption of biological clock mechanisms was the cause or the result of neurodegeneration.

The biological clock, in humans and animals, is a complex genetic mechanism tuned to the 24-hour day and regular cycles of light, dark and sleep.

It influences a wide range of biological processes — from fertility to hormone production, feeding patterns, DNA repair, sleep, stress reactions, even the effectiveness of medications.

“In these experiments, we showed through both environmental and genetic approaches that disrupting the biological clock accelerated these health problems,” said Kuntol Rakshit, an Oregon State University graduate fellow, the journal Neurobiology of Disease reports.

“There’s a great deal of interest right now in studies on circadian rhythms, as we learn more about the range of problems that can result when they are disrupted,” Rakshit said. “Ultimately, we hope this research will be taken from the laboratory to the bedside.”

These studies were done with fruit flies, but Oregon scientists said previous research has indicated there are close parallels between them and humans, according to an Oregon statement.

Some of the genes regulating circadian rhythms in flies are so important that they have been preserved through millions of years of separate evolution and still do the same thing in humans.

In humans, researchers have found strong correlations between disrupted clock mechanisms, aging, and neurologic diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease.