Before You Call the Doctor:

JET LAG

Jet lag is the fatigue and disorientation experienced after flying across time zones.

What’s Going On? Jet lag, formally known as “circadian desynchronosis,” is a disruption of the subtle but powerful internal biological clock that regulates many body functions such as temperature, kidney output, and normal sleep/wake patterns.

This disruption affects not only business travelers and vacationers, but also the growing number of people who work odd-hour shifts such as pilots, police, and health care workers. Jet lag is more than just a nuisance.
Scientists who study the biological clock (“chronobiologists”) believe circadian desynchronosis causes reasoning lapses that contribute to hospital medication errors, police shooting incidents, and even airline disasters.

Before You Call The Doctor. Two methods have been developed to prevent jet lag. The easier one involves determining the number of time zones you’ll cross, counting back that number of days, then preadjusting to your destination by going to sleep and getting up one hour a day earlier if you plant to fly east, or one hour later if you’re flying west.

The more complicated approach is the Anti-Jet Lag Diet developed by Dr. Charles Ehret of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. For travel within continental North America (except Alaska), two days on his diet should suffice. For travel abroad (or betwen the East Coast and Alaska or Hawaii), allow four days.

To get your body into synch with your destination’s time zone, the Anti-Jet Lag Diet alternates feast days with fast days:

Day one: Eat a high-protein breakfast and lunch (eggs, cheese, meats, and high-protein cereals), and a high-carbohydrate supper without high-protein foods (pastas, potatoes, pancakes, rice, and breads).

Day two: Fast by eating light meals of salads, thin soups, fruits, and juices. Keep carbohydrates and fats to a minimum and do not exceed 800 calories.

Day three (or day one of the two-day program): Feast as on day one.

Departure day (day four or two): Fast, then have a high-protein breakfast during local breakfast time at your destination. If no breakfast is scheduled on your flight, bring hard-boiled eggs, cheeses, and high-protein cereals. Do some isometric exercises after this breakfast, and do not sleep again until bedtime at your destination. On arrival, eat the rest of your meals on local time. If you arrive at night, don’t break your final fast until breakfast the next day.

Authorities also recommend exercising after arrival. Toronto researchers found that hamsters suffering from circadian desynchronosis recovered more quickly when they exercised.

Caffeine can shift circadian rhythms forward or back, depending on when they’re consumed, but between 3:00 and 5:00 pm, they have little effect on body rhythm. If you use caffeine, consume it only from 3:00 to 5:00, except on the day you travel. Then use it in the morning if traveling west, or in the evening if traveling east.

Don’t drink alcohol while flying. Pressurized cabins increase its effects, and it slows the biological clock.

For short-stay trips across only one or two time zones, consider staying on your home schedule while away. While you may be a bit out of synch with the local mealtimes, you can avoid the fatigue, disorientation, and judgment problems caused by jet lag.