Going to the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver without jet lag – with the anti-jet lag program

Kleve (12th January 2010)
In February 2010, Vancouver (Canada) will be hosting the next Olympic Winter Games. The ability to maintain constant and top levels of performance for one or more competition days is considered an indispensable asset, and is often the difference between victory and loss. For many high-performance athletes, travelling to the locations where competitions will be held is associated with jet lag, which can have a negative effect on performance. Based on its many years of experience in the area of light therapy / chronobiology, DAVITA® has now developed a special anti-jet lag program, which aims to ensure that high-performance athletes / teams can arrive on location after a long flight without jet lag, and can continue to prepare for competitions without compromising their performance.

Long-distance flights to the Vancouver Olympic Games can cause jet lag and result in decreased performance levels.

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games will be held in Vancouver (Canada) in February of next year.
Most athletes will have to travel to this location by plane and cross several time zones. This can have a negative effect on performance, since the body’s internal clock is disrupted through the time differences. Jet lag symptoms include fatigue, sleep disturbances, headaches, disrupted appetite and digestion, and decreased performance, whereby the latter is a particularly worrisome aspect for athletes. However, jet lag can also lead to significant reductions in reaction speed and attention. Frequently, muscle power, flexibility and coordination are also reduced. To counteract these effects by preventing jet lag in the first place, DAVITA® has developed a special anti-jet lag program

Special anti-jet lag program by DAVITA®

Olympic champion Marten van der Weijden (10 km swimming) from the Netherlands is convinced of the positive effects of the DAVITA® anti-jet lag program. As part of an innovation seminar which was held in July 2009 during the swimming world championships in Rome, the swimmer reported how this special program and the support offered by Mr. Toine Schoutens from DAVITA® allowed him to overcome jet lag during preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and also helped to improve his quality of sleep and performance. Other Dutch swimmers such as Pieter van den Hoogenband and Marleen Veldhuis also reported very positive results with this program.

The anti-jet lag program, associated DAVITA® products and support can prevent jet lag and significantly improve athlete performance.

• Our program can be used not only against jet lag but also in a wider sense for optimizing the sleep-wake cycle to achieve optimum athletic performance.
• The focus of this program consists of the strategic application of light therapy and darkness at specific times. Light therapy offers many advantages related to the optimization of the sleep-wake cycle, improving performance and fighting jet lag. Light is the most important time indicator for humans. Using light therapy, it is possible to effectively prepare and establish the “inner clock” of athletes to the new time in Vancouver. In addition, light therapy is easy to implement, completely safe and virtually without side effects.
• In order to minimize other jet lag complaints, the program offers a special diet which can provide effective support for the measures described above.
• For athletes who are taking sleeping pills without additional medical indications, we recommend cognitive behavior therapy instead. Our program also includes this therapy program, which has been especially developed for stress-related sleep disturbances.
• An individual anti-jet lag program is prepared on the basis of a prior extensive survey, which determines an athlete’s respective chronotype and sleep-wake patterns.
• This is a customized program: advisory services and support for individual athletes / teams until the point of reaching the competition site depend on individual factors such as the type of sport, training and travel plans, cooperation with coaches, support staff and relatives, as well as other factors.

As one of the first companies in Europe, DAVITA® has been developing and producing light therapy devices since 1996, and is a leading company in this area in Europe.
Its long-term focus on chronobiology and the effects of light led to the development of an effective and easy-to-implement anti-jet lag program.

Now further performance athletes can also benefit from this program. The objective is to ensure that athletes and teams arrive on location without jet lag, and that further preparations for competition can be continued at full performance levels.

We would be pleased to answer your questions regarding the anti-jet lag program.

DAVITA® Nederland BV
Willemstraat 17c
5611 HB Eindhoven, the Netherlands
tel: 0031 (0)40 2950922
fax: 0031 (0)40 2960808
mobile 0031 (0)6 20267481
email: t.schoutens@davita.nl
internet: www.davita.nl