Fliers test natural remedies for jetlag

By KATE HILPERN

My partner and I were on holiday earlier this year when we got stuck chatting to a particularly irritating American. But he left us with one piece of useful advice.

"You have to try homoeopathy for jet lag," he practically shouted. "It's truly incredible."

Neither of us was sold, but we felt we had nothing to lose, and now we wouldn't consider crossing time zones without a dose.

Homeopathic tablets are just one of a number of anti-jet lag products and treatments growing fast in popularity among holiday-makers and business travellers.

"People are taking more long-distance trips, and there is greater consciousness about how jet lag can ruin these trips," explains Farrol Kahn, the director of the Aviation Health Institute.

The truth is that it's difficult, if not impossible, to avoid jet lag. Otherwise known as desynchronosis, jet lag is the temporary disruption of your body clock when you fly across several time zones.

"Your internal clock - the circadian rhythms that tell you when to go to sleep and wake up - becomes out of sync with your environment," explains Dr Mark Popplestone, a consultant occupational physician who works for British Airways.

"What's more, circadian rhythms also govern things like your body temperature and appetite, which can re-adjust at different rates again. It is the conflict between these that leaves you feeling jet lagged."

Recognised as a clinical condition, jet lag's symptoms include feelings of exhaustion, disorientation, forgetfulness and fuzziness. Not to mention headaches, bad moods and a reduced sex drive. Some people's circadian rhythms are so severely disrupted that they hover on the brink of depression.

While it's accepted there is no "cure" for jet lag, an increasing number of treatments and products are said to minimise its effects.

Rupal Shah, a pharmacist at the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, says homoeopathic products have grown in popularity because they are natural remedies and children can take them.

"The conventional medicines available for jet lag tend to leave a sick feeling," she says.

The main homoeopathic remedy for jet lag is arnica, made from the mountain plant leopard's bane. "It's very good for when you feel weak and sore because of tiredness," she explains. "Cocculus, used almost as much, is a well-known cure for travel sickness symptoms and jet lag, especially if there is a loss of appetite."

One frequent traveller, Sylvia Lanch, swears by acupuncture every time she flies back to England from seeing her son in Las Vegas. "When I'm tired and come back from a flight, it gives me a tremendous boost and feeling of wellbeing," she says.

Pinder-Ayres, her acupuncturist, explains: "Our bodies work in sync with the sun, and when we fly to a different time zone our internal system becomes confused. Acupuncture is all about balancing your internal system and this gets your body back in sync with its natural environment."

Patients rarely come to her specifically for jet lag. But people who have been treated with acupuncture for other reasons often start to use it when they fly long haul.

Of all the natural remedies, aromatherapy probably attracts the most scepticism. But scientists are interested in how inhaling essential oils, or rubbing them on to the skin, can ease a number of ailments, including jet lag.

While more people are becoming convinced by natural remedies such as aromatherapy, homoeopathy and acupuncture, there is no hard evidence that they work for jet lag.

Dr Mark Rosekind, a former Nasa scientist and founder of the American scientific consulting firm Alertness Solutions, which advises on sleep-related issues, warns: "Be wary of their claims, they are often not based on science, can be expensive and involved, and may have no effect."

One treatment most commonly used by time-travellers is a supplement of melatonin - the hormone we secrete at night to put us to sleep - and with this, there is evidence for its efficaciousness. Indeed, many studies have shown that taking supplemental melatonin can significantly increase the speed of recovery after long-haul flights in about half of individuals.

Dr David O'Connell who runs the Jetlag Clinic in London advocates the use of melatonin for both adults and children. Others are not so optimistic. Kahn adds: "We don't yet know if there are any long-term side effects." Instead he recommends light therapy, scientifically proven to work with no side effects.

When you arrive somewhere for a holiday, it may be midnight as far as your body is concerned, but exposing yourself to bright light makes your body begin to adjust itself to the new time. It's useful to get customised advice, says Kahn.

Outside In, a company that deals in light therapy for body clock-related problems, has devised a trip guide on the internet at www.outsidein.co.uk with instructions on when flyers should seek bright light, and when they should avoid it.

' Those who normally have a set routine are more likely to fall victim to jetlag than those who don't. Babies, for example, seem to have little problem. Age is also a factor, with the under-50s generally more easily able to bounce back.

Meanwhile, O'Connell has found that men tend to approach jet lag in a macho way by denying that the condition exists, while women tend to be more honest. "But then, they have a lot more at stake, because it can affect their menstrual cycles," he says.

- INDEPENDENT