Any tips for Jet Lag?

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Kim

Here for my friends.....
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In a couple of weeks we'll be flying from Japan to Hawaii for a week. There's a 5 hour timezone difference but I'd like to try to limit the effects of the flight. Does anyone know of any tips to limit Jet Lag? I want to dive as much as I can while we are there. We'll be arriving on a Thursday morning and I'd like to at least be decently fit to dive by Saturday, (maybe even Friday evening).
 
Don't drink alcohol on the flight.
Do drink lots of water on the flight.
Don't sit in your seat all flight long. Get up and move around some.
Get on local time ASAP.
Eat a good meal ASAP when you land to get your metabolism going.
 
Wings:
Don't drink alcohol on the flight.
Do drink lots of water on the flight.
Don't sit in your seat all flight long. Get up and move around some.
Get on local time ASAP.
Eat a good meal ASAP when you land to get your metabolism going.

Airlines no longer want you moving about the aircraft, in fact you are no longer allowed to wait out side the toilet.

On a recent long flight to Oz I got some sleeping pills and after 35 hours traveling arrived very fresh and ready to go.
 
KimLeece, we travel often from the west coast of the US to Europe for parachute meets. Jetlag used to be pretty bad, and take about 4-5 days to really get rid of.

We now use a product called EnadAlert, sold in the US through GNC (General Nutrition Stores), which contains NADH. This has been tested as a jetlag medication.

My personal experience with this has been overwhelmingly positive. When used as directed, the worst of the jetlag is gone for me by sunset, 36 hours after arrival, assuming we deplane about 0700 local time.

I keep taking it after that point, and all traces of jetlag are gone for me in 72 hours.

We used to plan our arrivals for about 6 days before the parachute competition to get rid of the jetlag. Now we arrive 3 days in advance (and one day of that is just to get in practice jumps). It sounds too good to be true, but it has been amazing for us.

Of course, hydrate well, etc. Although the "put me down drink" sure seems to help you get a start on sleep onboard the airplane.

All the best, James
 
cdiver2:
Airlines no longer want you moving about the aircraft, in fact you are no longer allowed to wait out side the toilet.

On a recent long flight to Oz I got some sleeping pills and after 35 hours traveling arrived very fresh and ready to go.
That's very strange considering DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis). A friend of mine had a massive heart attack following an 8 hour flight from Delhi to Frankfurt. If an airline stops you walking about during a flight then they would become extremely liable for any DVT. My friend was in a coma for 10 days and very lucky to live through it. There are several cases currently pending against Quantus because of DVT - and apparantly a very good chance that they will lose them, because the airlines have provably known about DVT for quite a long time - issued no warnings - even denied that long haul flights were a major cause.
 
I used to make that flight fairly regulary over a 5 year period while station in Yokosuka, Japan. My recommendation is to have several drinks prior to/with dinner and then try to sleep until arrival. Since you will be arriving early in the morning try to stay up at 8:00 PM the first night (THU) and you should be good to go diving by FRI morning.

The Japan to Hawaii trip is a piece of cake. Our next trip will take us from San Diego to Los Angeles to Narita to Singapore (8 hour layover) to Manado and then a 1 hour van ride. We plan to do our familiarization dive shortly after arrival.

I do a lot of flying between LA and Narita these days now that I have retired. It is true that the airlines now discouraged standing around/congregating around the the airline attendant areas/rest rooms but they don't say anything about walking laps around your seating section.

Rickg

P.S. My wife and I are both 51 and it only takes us a day or so to get past the jet lag.
 
Thanks for all your suggestions. James, I'll check out that EnadAlert - I probably can't get it in Japan, but I should be able to in Honolulu I suppose.
I fly quite a lot to Europe from Japan - and it always takes me at least 5 or 6 days to recover. The difference is 9 hours not 5, so I'm hoping for less of a hit as there doesn't seem much point to go somewhere and be jetlagged all the time you are there!! I must admit, it's one of those things that gets worse with age - I'm 52 now - and either my memory is also beginning to go - or I never used to suffer so much when I was younger. Any - thanks again for all the helpful tips.
 
KimLeece:
Thanks for all your suggestions. James, I'll check out that EnadAlert - I probably can't get it in Japan, but I should be able to in Honolulu I suppose.
I fly quite a lot to Europe from Japan - and it always takes me at least 5 or 6 days to recover. The difference is 9 hours not 5, so I'm hoping for less of a hit as there doesn't seem much point to go somewhere and be jetlagged all the time you are there!! I must admit, it's one of those things that gets worse with age - I'm 52 now - and either my memory is also beginning to go - or I never used to suffer so much when I was younger. Any - thanks again for all the helpful tips.
i am not suire if you can find it now in japan (they dont have it in UK either) but try melatonin, its a more natural sleeping tablet, take a few days before leaving and use it to sleep on the plane then again on arrrival. Cuts my jeg lag in half.
Tokyo to London im over in a couple of days
 
KimLeece:
I fly quite a lot to Europe from Japan - and it always takes me at least 5 or 6 days to recover. The difference is 9 hours not 5, so I'm hoping for less of a hit as there doesn't seem much point to go somewhere and be jetlagged all the time you are there!!
Kim, there's definitely a difference between -9 and +5 hrs. Since I assume that your +5 hr Japan-to-Hawaii is overnight ("arriving on a Thursday morning"), the best thing is to sleep on the flight and stay awake Thursday before going to sleep a bit early. Spend Thursday outside in the sunlight to help get your system on the local day/night schedule. (It's also a lot harder to give in and just take a "little" nap if you're walking around!) I don't travel as much as I used to, but the +5 from eastern US to England was easier than -3 to the west coast (where I generally got away with staying on my normal eastern time schedule).

I hope you enjoy your vacation.

-Rob
 
KimLeece:
That's very strange considering DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis). A friend of mine had a massive heart attack following an 8 hour flight from Delhi to Frankfurt. If an airline stops you walking about during a flight then they would become extremely liable for any DVT. My friend was in a coma for 10 days and very lucky to live through it. There are several cases currently pending against Quantus because of DVT - and apparantly a very good chance that they will lose them, because the airlines have provably known about DVT for quite a long time - issued no warnings - even denied that long haul flights were a major cause.

I don't say you are wrong but after 911 airlines are gun shy of people moving about and I have seen stewards ask people to go back to there seats when waiting in line for the bathroom.

As to being liable I don't know, if you have 200 people on a flight and one has DVT ?. If I were a airline official the first thing I would point out is 199 walk off with no trouble, maybe that one person had a personal health problem that he was not aware of.
On the other hand if the plane is driven into the ground then it will affect all 200 people.

I'm not looking for a argument just that I see the airlines point of view in trying to maintain as much security as possible.
*Quantas has the worst leg room of any airline I have ever flown on
 

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