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The only reliable means I have found of reducing jet-lag is to fly business class (no one has yet so valued my services as to pay for me to fly first class). But even comparative luxury cannot altogether fool the body's internal clock.
For many years, friends have been recommending melatonin to me as the sovereign remedy for, or rather preventative of, jet-lag. They swear by it, but I have always been sceptical.
My doubts have been vindicated - to an extent - by a paper in the latest British Medical Journal.
A meta-analysis of all properly conducted, placebo-controlled trials of melatonin for various problems of sleep failed to find any consistent benefit conferred by the drug. Overall, there was no benefit at all, the report concluded.
Such meta-analyses, however, have their drawbacks and limitations.
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| A cure for jet-lag remains elusive despite extensive research |
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In this case, the meta-analysis lumps all causes of sleep disturbance together, as if they were comparable; but it isn't even certain that the melatonin taken by the participants in the trials was of the same quality. In the United States, melatonin is regarded as a food supplement, rather than a drug, and is therefore not subject to the strict quality controls in force for other pharmaceuticals. Moreover, it is always possible that in the trials designed to test the effect of melatonin on jet-lag, the participants took the wrong dose in the right fashion, or the right dose in the wrong fashion, or the wrong dose in the wrong fashion.
In other words, further research is required - as usual. 
FIRST POSTED FEBRUARY 22, 2006
 Last time: At last a DIY Aids test
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