Bloomberg: How to Cure Jet Lag

Scientists believe that they have found the protein that causes jet lag.
Link to the full story:  Bloomberg: This Scientific Breakthrough Could Cure Jet Lag Forever

The medical community has taken the next step toward finding a jet-lag cure, thanks to a Salk Institute study published last year in Cell. According to Dr. Ronald Evans, the lead author of the study, a protein called Rev-ErbA (pronounced ree-verb-AY) may be the key to unlocking a regular, healthy circadian rhythm no matter where (or when) in the world you are.

Here is how they think it works:

Your circadian rhythm doesn’t regulate itself: Rev-ErbA does. According to Evans’s study, the protein acts as a sort of master switch that coordinates the “turning on and off” of genes that regulate our circadian rhythms, including those involved in metabolism.

Pinpointing that master switch and understanding how it works is the first step to controlling it artificially. By regulating both the amount of Rev-ErbA in the body as well as how much it fluctuates over the course of a day, we might eventually find a cure for jet lag. And it doesn’t end there: The same science may eventually offer relief to people with chronic sleeping issuesand other chronic conditions that can develop as a result of a disrupted circadian cycle. 

Here is the bottom line:

Evans’s biggest takeaway is to place equal importance on all three of those pillars of circadian rhythm when resetting your schedule in a new time zone. The sooner you’re moving around, sleeping, and eating at the right times, the sooner you’ll adjust.  

More practical advice:

Instead, said Evans, you should wake up at a normal hour and head off-site for a morning meal: It’ll reset both your activity and feeding cycles while getting you some fresh air and forcing you to wake up at a reasonable time. Counterintuitive as that sounds, it’s far better than easing into your morning under the hotel duvet with a cup of coffee. “We can use food and light exposure to adjust more rapidly by timing when we eat, sleep, wake up, and are exposed to natural light,” she advised. Sunlight, she said, “helps signal and reset our circadian rhythms,” allowing our bodies to adapt more quickly.