A group of researchers believe they can ease jet lag’s impacts by using cell therapy to help your body’s internal clock adjust before your vacation begins.
The research grew out of a need to help soldiers adjust quickly to new time zones and schedules.
Omid Veiseh, director of the Biotechnology Launch Pad at Rice University in Texas, said the work started through funding by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a branch of the Department of Defense.
“Depending on the branch of military, whether you’re a pilot or you work on an aircraft carrier, there’s issues of circadian rhythm disruption, which really affect the readiness of the troops.”
Of course, it affects the readiness of vacationers, too.
“We recognized that the circadian rhythm is regulated through a central clock, which resets based on sunlight” Veiseh said. “But then there’s a peripheral clock, which is the hormone levels that are regulated throughout the day.”
According to the research, the trick to avoiding jet lag could be injecting cells that help produce the hormone leptin before travel.
His research found that by injecting the right hormones at the right time of day, you can alleviate the effects of jet lag.
The next challenge, he said, is to make it “deployable and easier for patients to administer.”
He estimated they’re about five years away from a commercially available product.
Importantly, he added that this does not replace sleep.
“You’ll still get tired,” Veiseh said. “It’s just what it’s fixing is this asynchronous mismatch between your central clock and peripheral clock.”
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