Recently a study was published by Stanford University in Washington that advises us to starve on our long distance holiday trips, if we want avoid jet lag or at least dampen the effects of the time lag on our body. The study was performed in mice. The researchers found out that not only light, the rhythm of day and night is timing our gene clock, but also hunger. While chronobiology is a compex thing the Stanford experiment is looking for a simple way out. Genetically modified mice that lack the major clock gene seem that they are steered primarily by hunger. If they that are kept hungry stay up longer than their wild breed controls. Thus, they suggest that hunger is the second meter pulsing our body’s clock. If there is any shortage in food, the scientists state the shortened day-night-cycle increases their chance of surivival. At least this is the conclusion they draw from their experiments in mice.
A longer time awake makes survival more likely. Do you agree? And the next conclusion, and that seems rather rigorous and arbitrary to me, is: Hunger is a concept against jet lag. Give it a try. If it does not help your jet lag symptoms, it may help you to loose wait 😉
