We are so lucky to live in a world where we can jump on a plane, travel for 20 hours and end up literally on the other side of the world! I just completed the long journey from MEL – LON return, with 3 weeks in between of relaxing of course!
When we arrive at our destination we update our watches to the current time (or our phones update automatically), however it’s so not straightforward for our body clocks (circadian rhythm) to adjust.
Jetlag can cause an array of symptoms including confusion, anxiety, irritability, nausea, insomnia, headaches, lose of appetite, which can last up to 10 days. It takes approximately one day of recovery per time zone crossed.
Jet lag causes most symptoms when travelling West to East and cannot cause symptoms when travelling north to south and vice versa.
Dr John Amaro, a Chinese Medicine practitioner in Arizona became interested in jetlag as early as 1975 and published a book ‘Beating Jetlag’ in 1987. He discovered that you could use the Chinese medicine body clock to adjust your body to the particular time zone you are travelling to. Image below:
Why not give this a go next time you are travel across time zones?
1. Determine the time at your destination before boarding. Adjust watch/phone
2. Determine the organ on the body clock at current time of destination
3. Stimulate points either by pressure using your finger or 20 taps with a pen
4. Follow the above clock and stimulate each organ every 2 hours*
* It’s ok if you fall asleep on the plane, catch up by stimulating each organ/channel that you missed
Example: Flying LON – MEL.
Time in LON 6pm. Time in MEL 3am (Lung time)
1. Adjust watch/phone to 3am just before take off
2. Stimulate point on the lung channel as per the image above within the first 2 hours of flying
3. In 2 hours time from first stimulation, stimulate the point on the large intestine channel as per the image above
4. Follow the organ clock until you have completed the 24 hour cycle by stimulating each channel
**I fell asleep between the hours of 12pm – 4pm MEL time. I caught up by stimulating Heart, Small Intestine and Bladder channel together.
Additional suggestions:
· Be well rested before flying, don’t expect to sleep through soundly on your flight, or catch up on sleep on the plane
· Hydrate before, during and after flying. Drink only water and especially avoid alcohol and coffee. (Tip: I take my own water bottle on the flight (empty of course to get through customs), I ask the air hostesses myself at their station to fill my bottle up. Don’t wait for those tiny ½ cups of water they hand out every few hours).
Any further questions, please drop us a line or pop into the clinic in Thornbury. Open Monday 2 - 8 and Wednesday 8 - 2.
References:
http://web.mit.edu/1.265/www/Beating%20Jet%20Lag%20-%20New.pdf http://www.who.int/ith/mode_of_travel/jet_lag/en/