Equine Jet Lag

The consequences of jet lag for the equine athlete have become more relevant in recent times due to increased travel of performance horses across multiple time zones for international competition.
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Almost all life on earth is influenced by the daily cycles of light and dark brought about by the presence of the sun and the continuous rotation of our planet around its own axis. From the simplest algae to mammals, nearly all organisms have adapted their lifestyle in such a way that they organize their activities into 24-hour cycles determined by sunrise and sunset. Jet lag occurs due to an abrupt change in the light dark cycle resulting from travel across multiple time zones. This in turn causes de-synchronization between an organism’s physiological processes and the environment.

The consequences of jet lag for the equine athlete have become more relevant in recent times due to increased travel of performance horses across multiple time zones for international competition. The effects of jet lag are significantly more detrimental for an athlete hoping to perform optimally in a new time zone.

All mammals possess a “master” circadian clock that resides in a specific area of the brain. Here diverse physiological processes, such as blood pressure, heart rate, wakefulness, hormone secretion, metabolism, and body temperature, are regulated. Each of these processes is in turn affected by time of day. During daylight hours, the eye perceives light, and the light signals travel to the brain where they activate a number of important genes. These “clock” genes are responsible for relaying signals conveying the time of day information to the rest of the body. Jet lag results in the acute disruption of each one of these processes.

Recent advances in the field of chronobiology have shown that a molecular clock functions in almost all tissues and that the activities of possibly every cell in a given tissue are subject to the control of a clockwork mechanism, which is ultimately controlled by the environmental light-dark cycle

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