Perpetual jet lag

People living with HIV have a significantly delayed internal body clock, consistent with the symptoms of jet lag, a study published in the "Journal of Pineal Research" shows.

Researchers from Wits, the University of Cape Town and international colleagues studied people living in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa, where nearly one person in four is living with HIV. They found that physiological daily rhythms, as measured by the hormone melatonin, were delayed by more than an hour on average in HIV positive participants. Their sleep cycle was also shorter, as their sleep started later and finished earlier. This may contribute significantly to an increased burden of health problems experienced by people living with HIV including risk of cardiovascular, metabolic, and psychiatric disorders.

PhD candidate in the Wits Sleep Laboratory and first co-author in the study Kirsten Redman (BSc 2012, BHSc Hons 2012, MSc Med 2017), says: “We realise the impact that this can have for people living with HIV. These disruptions are known to affect the cardiovascular system and correcting them may help better control cardiometabolic disease risk in this cohort.”

Dr Xavier Gómez-Olivé (PhD 2014) another co-author of the article, based at the study site in Mpumalanga at Agincourt, says: “Our findings identify an urgent research topic. The next step must be to establish if the same body clock disruption exists in people living with HIV who are younger and who live in other countries.”

Source: Wits research news