Scientists provide insight into jet lag

LONDON - Everyone hates jet lag - insomnia, loss of appetite, decreased alertness and depressed mood - that accompanies travel to locations in different time zones.

The symptoms of jet lag are caused by misalignment of a person’s internal body clock and external time.

Now, Gregor Eichele and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany have provided new insight into the molecular mechanisms responsible for resetting the internal clock in the mouse.

One of their key observations indicates that modulating the speed with which the adrenal gland shifts its rhythmic production of hormones that regulates the resetting of the entire internal body clock.

The authors suggest that their data point to new potential therapies to overcome jet lag.

Mary Harrington at Smith College, Northampton, discusses how these data have implications not only for those who suffer jet lag but also for those who perform rotating shift work.

This has been linked to many serious health problems, including breast cancer, stroke and cardiovascular disease.

She also cautions that it will be important to determine whether treatments for jet lag that allow the body clock to shift rapidly are actually better for one’s health than the slower adjustments that occur naturally, said a Max Planck release.

The research appears in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.