Along with the invention of the aeroplane came JetLag. Long flights disturb our biological clock. With Intercontinental flights we fly from one time zone to the other. Our body is accustomed to cycles and rhythms and adjusted to meals, day and night and work etc.
About 75% of people making Intercontinental flights get JetLag. Travelling from east to west is gives us the most inconvienences because of time zones. Flying from north to south doesn’t matter, because time doesn’t change. Studies from the American Space Agency learn that the recuperationtime is one day for one hour of time difference. So you loose 7 days of healthy, efficient working time after a 7 hour flight!. If nobody on this planet would experience JetLag inconvienences we could win a lot of productive working hours.
Young Children seem to have fewer troubles just like healthy sportsmen who can handle change of circumstance in daily life better.
Fatigue before departure is a cause of having more trouble with time zones. Also drinking too much alcohol, smoking and drinking coffee isn’t helpful. Getting sleep during the flight is mostly not easy. It’s a stressfull thing – flying around the world. Arriving at a warmer climate or area with smog doesn’t make things easier. Whether you do or don’t like travelling makes a great difference.
Melatonin is a natural hormone produced by the body which is often used to regulate sleepingdisorders. It hasn’t proven to be helpfull. If you suffer from diabetes, cancer, heartdisease or other diseases contact your physician.
By listening to our body and taking enough rest we recharge our “battery”. For many people that’s a serious problem according to Prof. Dr. Gerard Kerkhof. He concluded that all processes in our bodies, intestines, nerves and brains etc. have a 24 hour rhythm. So your whole body is affected by JetLag.
People visiting my practice asked me for help with their JetLag. That was the moment to think of a way for people to solve that problem, so I gave it a shot. The first people asking me about it I gave two points to massage before flying, and it worked, so that was enough reason to continue my research. The points you massage have an effect on the biological clock; it’s balanced by the massage, but you need to target the points corresponding with the right departure- and arrival times. Every two hours the points change. Massaging the acupunture points corresponding with your departure- and arrival time as shown on this site by submitting those times, in addition to two points that are always recomended, help prevent jetlag. If your departure time is delayed by more than 3 hours submit again to change the points.
JetLag?
Disturbance of sleepingrhythm, emotional disorder, apetite changes, fatigue, headaches, irritability, low energy, less concentration, dizziness and other inconvienences which are well known symtoms for people working in shifts or suffering from JetLag. Cause is the disorder of our biological clock. This biological clock has been well known to chinese medicine (acupuncture and so on) for 4000 – 5000 years. So you’re setting your biological clock using knowledge from 4000 – 5000 years ago, how amazing is that?
Flying from east to west makes your day longer; you’re going back in time. This causes little or no problem at all. Flying from west to east your day gets shorter. Meaning: trouble!
JetLag can occur due to flying for longer than 2 hours or when more than 2 time zones are passed.
Even the start of summertime can cause problems like Jetlag. Making sure you get enough daylight helps to resolve the problems. (M. Merrow, professor molecular and genetically chronobiology in Groningen). Sometimes it takes more than a week to recover from switching to summertime.
The body normally needs a day to recover from 1 hours time difference with Jetlag. The Dutch Society of Sleep and Awake rhythm (NSWO) gives this advice: Go to bed half an hour earlier and rise half an hour earlier during four days before departure. The ‘Eindhovense’ Society research light and health (SOLG) made a scheme with light and darkness to set the body.
Johanna Meijer studied mice and rats and their biological clock. She also studied the effects of Jetlag symptoms in individual cells. She said that a hormone called GABA has to do with the body clock. Drs. L.E. Pihlajamaa Glimmerveen said: “Our cells know what time it is. Every cell has its own biological clock.”
In space we also have to do with this biological clock. Chronobiology studies these biological rhythms. They divide them in rhythms shorter than one day – one day and longer than one day. Circadian rhythms are the best known. It lasts about one day and our clock is set every day by the changing of day and night (of light and darkness).
One example of a strange rhythm is little larvae. They live underground and they all appear at the same time 13 or 17 years after the eggs were laid.
The biological clock is a miniscule opticum (about 20.000 cells) just above the chiasma opticum (the place where the optic nerves cross). These cells can get their information directly from the eyes (light or darkness).
In our body we have a series of other clocks. Maybe about one hundred processes in the body have been counted having their own clocksystem. All the hormones follow a rhythm and depend on the day and night switch. Melatonin is the most famous in Jetlag, but when used as a medicine against it it could damage the balance of all the other hormones and the whole system. Better use sunlight.
People working in night shift sleep better when they work in the night under very strong lamps.
Also our body temperature has its rhythm. Our lowest body temperature for instance is at 04.30 hours and the highest at 19.00 hours (fever hour).
The biological clock must be at least 700.000 million years old. Genes in bacteria produce RNA which produces protein. The most protein lives for 24 hours, the cycle of one day. How many proteins have to cooporate to run the system, they don’t know. It’s a kind of a feedback system, but how it works is unknown.
I think when you look at the results with massaging points that the biological clock also has allot to do with our Energy body. After flying, the biological clock of our Physical body and Energy body aren’t in balance. So set your biological clock with massaging the points.
Inconvienences caused by JetLag (most people experience only some of them):
- Feeling hung-over
- Insomnia (trouble sleeping)
- Fatigue
- Low energy
- Emotional disorders
- Less concentration
- Apetite changes
- Dizziness
- Headache
- Stomach irritation like nausea or hiccups
- Restlessness
- Dehydration
- Feeling disturbed
- Less coordination
- Slight feeling of depression
- Disturbance of the intestines
- Less resilience against disease
- Some memory loss
- Sweating
- Less alertness
- Feeling irritated
