Jet Lag Pills - Panacea or Placebo Effect?

We live in an age that requires an immediate cure for every conceivable disorder under the sun, so it is not surprising that jet lag is connected to the band of conditions that are the promise of a cure in the form of a pill. But can a pill really provide the panacea for jet lag, or are the results of taking such pills nothing but imagined.

Jet lag is a common sleep disorder that almost any long-haul flight will be familiar with. It is caused by the body's inability to reset its internal clock quickly enough to bring it into line with local time when you arrive at your destination.

For example, consider flying from London to Singapore. You arrive at eight in the morning local time to start a busy day of meetings or sightseeing. However, your internal clock is still set for London at two in the morning and tells you to stay in bed and sleep fast.

Whichever method you use to either prevent or cure jet lag, and there are many different ways to do this, the end result must be an adjustment of your own body clock to the local time if the symptoms of jet lag are to disappear. So can this be achieved with a simple pill?

One of the most widely used pills found today is a homeopathic preparation that contains such things as chamomile plant extracts and a common form of daisies. Although homeopathic remedies have a long and well-established history, and while chamomile itself is known for its properties to help sleep, it seems far from suggesting that taking a pill before you start quickly forward your body clock six hours during your flight from London to Singapore.

So why do so many people swear by such pills? There are probably four reasons:

First, we are conditioned to believe that the advancement of science is such that doctors can cure almost everything today, and why should we not believe in a pill to cure jet lag.

Second, various drug tests have repeatedly demonstrated the power of the "placebo effect". In other words, the fact that something is being done to combat a condition can in itself produce the trap it works.

Third, jet lag does not always kick in right away. We are all familiar with the fact that a few late nights do not always affect us right away and that it may be two or three days before our late nights catch up. Because many travelers are also doing well the first few days, they assume the pills must have worked. When jet lag catches up, they often incorrectly attribute their symptoms to the change in climate or something they've eaten.

Fourth, sales of pills, of whatever description, are big companies backed by big advertising budgets and smart marketing. This marketing extends to jet lag pills and is even supported by studies that clearly show the effectiveness of such pills. The only problem here is that many of the studies cited are fundamentally flawed and lack any details. Most studies, for example, involve flight crews, especially cabin crew, who are hardly representative of the majority of the traveling public and may well be assumed to have a particular interest in promoting air travel.

It would be nice if we could just take a pill when we board the plane and arrive at our destination without jet lag. Unfortunately, at least this is not possible at the moment.