How a steroid pill messes with your body's internal clock
Effects of prednisolone administration on clock gene expression and indices of circadian rhythms in healthy human males.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
A daily steroid pill for 5 days tricked the body into thinking it's always under stress, which confused the natural daily rhythms in muscles, fat, and sleep.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
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Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
A daily steroid pill for 5 days tricked the body into thinking it's always under stress, which confused the natural daily rhythms in muscles, fat, and sleep.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 562 / 90
Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Publication
Authors
Hansen SB, Frederiksen JSS, Lodberg A, Poulsen MF, Andersen CBF, Oster H, Jessen N, Jørgensen JOL
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Claims (5)
Taking 25 mg of prednisolone daily for five days raises glucose levels in the body at night by 67% compared to daytime levels in healthy young men, suggesting that the drug interferes with the natural daily rhythm of glucose regulation.
Taking 25 mg of prednisolone daily for five days raises nighttime systolic blood pressure by about 7 mmHg in healthy young men compared to a placebo, which reduces the normal drop in blood pressure that occurs during sleep.
Taking 25 mg of prednisolone daily for five days lowers sleep efficiency by about 3 percentage points in healthy young adult males, compared to taking a placebo.
Taking 25 mg of prednisolone daily for five days in healthy young men raises the level of active glucocorticoid hormones in the blood by 4.5 times compared to taking a placebo.
Taking 25 mg of prednisolone daily for five days reduces the natural daily fluctuations in the activity of key clock genes in muscle and fat tissue, suggesting the drug directly interferes with the body's internal timing system in these tissues.