Friday, March 19, 2010

What is Jet Lag?

Jet lag results from the body’s adjustment as a result of travel across time zones. This is also called desynchronosis. I’ve made a list of the common jet lag symptoms below:
  • Fatigue
  • Insomnia
  • Constipation
  • Anxiety
  • Diarrhea
  • Nausea
  • Headache
  • Confusion
  • Irritability
  • Sweating
  • Coordination problems
  • Memory Loss
  • Dehydration
  • Heartbeat Irregularities
  • Weak immune system
Time Zones and Our Bodies

How exactly do we get all or some of these jet lag symptoms just by traveling?  The clue is in understanding time zones. A time zone is an area in the world that operates in the same time as anywhere within that area. Imagine that the world is an orange split in sections from top to bottom. Each slice has the same time zone. Because the earth rotates, one time zone experiences dawn at a set time. The time zone next to it experiences dawn one hour after the previous time zone and so on.

So why does your body react so hard to a change in time zone? Shouldn’t just thinking about the time itself help you adjust? I wish the solution to jet lag symptoms is just as simple as sheer will power. However, it’s more complicated than that.

Our Built-in Body Alarm Clock

You see, we have an internal body alarm clock and that is a part of our brain that is called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus controls when we experience hunger, thirst, or when we feel sleepy. It also controls our blood pressure, body temperature, and the amount of glucose and hormones that should be released in our blood stream. The hypothalamus gets its clues about the time of day from our optic nerves and the amount of light it gathers. Simply put, when the eyes perceive light, the hypothalamus gets to work and schedules our bodily functions. When we travel, the optic nerve communicates earlier or later times to the hypothalamus and our own body rhythms are thrown off-track.

When we travel across time zones, our hypothalamus gets confused by the messages brought in by the optic nerve. As it tries to adjust to the new schedule, that’s when we experience the symptoms of jet lag. For relief of jet lag symptoms, you can take a natural melatonin supplement because melatonin when taken an hour or two before bedtime serves to regulate our natural biological rhythms. Another great product to try is Travelers Defense.

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