Rainy Day Healing

Making My Peace … with the superpowers of reindeer

Reindeer can help human learn more about depression, say scientists. Is that so? What I do know is that reindeer seem magical to me.

In 2019, the New Scientist LIFE magazine wrote about the superpowers of reindeer. Do they really have superpowers, like unlocking the secrets of depression?

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the University of Denmark, as part of the Ruminant Genome Project, found that many of the same genes that reindeer have that enable them to adapt to living in the Arctic environment are the same in humans. Nearly five million reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) live in the freezing climate of the Arctic, from Alaska to Siberia and Greenland, where there are more night-time hours of darkness than day-time hours of light.

Humans have daily rhythms of activity and sleep linked to day and night, light and dark. This is called the biological or circadian clock or rhythms.

Reindeer do this too, and …

Reindeer do this too, and they can also override their circadian clock. When there are 24 hours of daylight in the Arctic summer, reindeer forage for food at all hours, day and night. When there are 24 hours of darkness in the Arctic winter, reindeer are hardly active at all, but they don’t sleep a lot even though it is dark. They ‘break’ their circadian clock, just like other animals that live in the Arctic, such as Emperor penguins and polar bears.

The Ruminant Genome Project study found that reindeer have unique versions of genes that operate their circadian clock. One key protein, called Per2, mutates so that other circadian proteins can’t bind or stick to it, says Rasmus Heller at the University of Denmark.

Humans don’t have a gene to break their circadian clock, but learning about gene variants could help humans to overcome jet lag (re-adjusting to light and dark cycles across time zones after travelling long distances).

Knowing about the effects of disrupted circadian rhythms could also help humans learn more about mood disorders too, such as insomnia and depression. So, indirectly, reindeer can help humans learn more about depression – and treat depression.

Genetic scientists know another superpower that reindeer have, in addition to a team of them transporting Santa across the globe on 24 December to distribute joy and goodwill. Apparently, they can run as fast as an Olympic sprinter – up to 50 miles per hour – within 90 minutes after being born. And they can change the colour of their eyes from gold in summer to blue in winter.

Making my peace with the superpowers of reindeer, I learned the following:

• Learn from animals
• Find a magical team
• Have a plan
• Sleep well
• Give love
• Receive kindness
• Be unique
• Shine bright
• Go far

Martina Nicolls: Rainy Day Healing – MAKING MY PEACE