Jetting off without the jet lag
Everyone hates the jet lag - the nighttime insomnia, loss of appetite, decreased alertness, and depressed mood - that accompanies travel to locations in different time zones. The symptoms of jet lag are caused by misalignment of a person's internal body clock (also known as the circadian clock) and external time. Now, Gregor Eichele and colleagues, at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany, have provided new insight into the molecular mechanisms responsible for resetting the internal circadian system in the mouse. One of their key observations indicates that modulating the speed with which the adrenal gland shifts its rhythmic production of glucocorticoid hormones to the new light/dark cycle (the equivalent of the new time zone when considering human travel) regulates the resetting of the entire internal body clock. The authors suggest that their data point to new potential therapies to overcome jet lag...