Satchin Panda - Discover the Right Time to Eat, Sleep, and Exercise to Prevent and Reverse Prediabetes and Diabetes

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In 2015, when we published our first human study showing that the average person eats for 15 hours or longer each day, and that reducing this eating interval to 10 hours can promote weight loss, improve sleep, and increase the sense of energy, I received a pleasant surprise. Dr. Eric Topol of the neighboring Scripps Research Translational Institute tweeted our study findings. Dr. Topol is a world-renowned cardiologist who immediately saw the potential of our research on time-restricted eating, which is now more commonly known as intermittent fasting, or IF.

We assumed right away that what was good for weight loss would be highly effective in reducing the risk for diabetes and heart disease. It seems the public was on the same page. Soon thereafter, I fielded calls from patients and physicians asking for advice on how to implement IF for weight loss and diabetes management. But we needed more data from clinical studies overseen by physicians. Within weeks, Dr. Julie Wei-Shatzel started prescribing a 10-hour IF for her patients with diabetes or prediabetes along with the typical medications. After a few months, she informed me that her patients were making progress in managing their blood glucose and in many cases reducing their medications. Those early results from a physician encouraged me to start collaborating with researchers working in different universities around the world to test the impact of IF on people at high risk for developing diabetes, people with prediabetes, or those with diabetes.

About a year later, in 2016, I was lucky enough to have Dr. Emily Manoogian, a postdoc trainee, join my lab. She already had a PhD in circadian rhythm research and was eager to lead clinical human research in my group. I am immensely thankful for my collaborators who showed early curiosity about IF and took a big risk in trying out a new idea to manage diabetes. They include Dr. Pam Taub, Dr. Tinh-Hai Collet, Dr. Lisa Chow, Dr. Leonie Heilbronn, Dr. Krista Varady, and Dr. Blandine Laferrre. Several scientists, including Dr. Courtney Peterson, Dr. Kristine Frch, Dr. Josiane Broussard, and Dr. John Hawley, also consulted with me to start their independent research into IF and diabetes. In parallel, several laboratories around the world started assessing the impact of IF on aspects of diabetes risk or its complications. I am immensely thankful for these early testers of IF.

Our pilot study on the impact of a 10-hour IF on metabolic syndrome started in collaboration with Dr. Pam Taub at the University of California, San Diego. In 2018, after our first metabolic syndrome patient completed his 12-week IF program, Dr. Taub was ecstatic about the results. The patient had reduced his blood sugar and blood pressure to normal levels and had lost enough weight from his belly to have reduced his waist circumference by 2 inches. I was happy, but I was puzzled. Dr. Taub is a famous preventive cardiologist, and she treats dozens of patients with metabolic syndrome every week. Many of her heart patients are also diabetic. I thought doctors like her were curing people with drugs, but she told me that her typical patients were not seeing much benefit from their medications, or when they did see some benefits, they also complained about adverse side effects. But the patient who did IF saw multiple benefits and had no complaints. In fact, he promised to continue his IF as a new lifestyle. The same story was repeated again and again with Dr. Taubs study and in the studies of other collaborators. This is when I knew that we had come across something special.

The decision to write this book came quite abruptly. In 2018, I received a Pioneer funding award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to advance the knowledge of circadian rhythms and IF among clinicians and basic scientists by facilitating their research through the myCircadianClock app. I was attending a workshop related to science communication to nurture a culture of health at the RWJF campus in Princeton, New Jersey. By the end of the conference, I was jazzed up about communicating our latest findings. And that is when my friend Pam Liflander drove down from Connecticut to have a chat over dinner. We could not have the dinner meeting at a more opportune time. She convinced me that I should write this book and she would help me, just as she had done so well with my first book, The Circadian Code.

The outline for the book took shape during many dinner-table discussions with my family. My wife, Smita, and daughter, Sneha, would listen patiently to my scientific explanation and nudge me toward a simple clarification. Every once in a while, when my curious mother would visit me, she would also join the discussion by sharing her own journey with IF to reverse her diabetes. My familys patience with my long hours in the lab and frequent travels, and their constant support, has been priceless.

My editor, Donna Loffredo, and her team at Penguin Random House have been a pleasure to work with. My agent, Carol Mann, played an integral role in getting the project off the ground.

I am thankful to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where scientific excellence, symbiosis, and a strong drive to make foundational breakthroughs that can leave a lasting impact on the planet have been fueling my research. The work of the founder, Dr. Jonas Salk, is specifically inspiring for me: his development of the polio vaccine proves the powerful message that prevention is the best cure. The Salk Institute has given me unwavering support to do many unconventional experiments. My principal collaborators and scientific colleagues at Salk include Dr. Ron Evans and Dr. Marc Montminy, who introduced me to the molecular connections between circadian rhythms and nutrition metabolism, which form the foundation for understanding how nurturing your circadian rhythm is central to diabetes prevention and management. Dr. Reuben Shaw, Dr. Alan Saghatelian, and Dr. Joe Ecker have helped me with my circadian rhythm research in understanding how gene activities at different times of the day influence metabolism.

Outside of Salk, my collaborations and discussions with leaders in the area of intermittent fasting, circadian rhythm, metabolism, and diabetes include Dr. Dan Drucker, Dr. Mark Mattson, Dr. Johan Auwerx, Dr. Valter Longo, Dr. Eric Verdin, and Dr. Joe Takahashi, all of whom helped integrate the science behind Time-Restricted Eating (TRE) and circadian rhythm with the science of diabetes.

I am truly fortunate to work with a great group of students and trainees. Their hard work and long hours in the lab to break their own circadian code made it possible to test many of the ideas described in this book. I am especially thankful to Hiep Le, Dr. Christopher Vollmers, Dr. Megumi Hatori, Dr. Shubhroz Gill, Dr. Amandine Chaix, Dr. Amir Zarrinpar, Dr. Ludovic Mure, Dr. Luciano DiTacchio, Terry Lin, and Dr. Shaunak Deota.

I am also grateful for research funding from the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, American Federation for Aging Research, Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research, American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, World Cancer Research Fund International, Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation, William H. Donner Foundation, Auen Foundation, Chapman Foundation, Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, Irwin and Joan Jacobs, Dan Tierney, and Barbara Friedman.

Finally, through the myCircadianClock.org website and research app, thousands of people have come to learn about their own circadian rhythms and have shared their positive health changes achieved by following the lessons presented in this book. I am grateful to all of them.