- Bird Flu Virus in Canadian Teen Shows Mutations That Could Help It Spread Among Humans
- Flu, COVID Vaccination Rates Remain Low as Winter Nears
- ’10 Americas:’ Health Disparities Mean Life Expectancy Varies Across U.S.
- Short-Term Hormone Therapy for Menopause Won’t Harm Women’s Brains
- Could a Vitamin Be Effective Treatment for COPD?
- Woman Receives World’s First Robotic Double-Lung Transplant
- Flavored Vapes Behind Big Surge in U.S. E-Cigarette Sales
- Reading Beyond Headline Rare For Most on Social Media, Study Finds
- Meds Like Ozempic Are Causing Folks to Waste More Food
- Fibroids, Endometriosis Linked to Shorter Life Spans
Time Zone Changes Give Edge to Athletes From West
Traveling across several time zones can be draining for anyone. So, how do professional athletes manage to turn around and compete in games after traveling from one coast to another?
Apparently, not always that well, a new study says. And that’s especially true when teams are traveling from an earlier time zone to a later one.
When professional sports teams in North America travel west to east, they have a higher winning percentage than those traveling east to west, researchers said.
The study authors looked at five years of regular season games for the National Basketball Association, the National Football League and the National Hockey League. They compared game outcomes and the direction of travel for all the teams.
The results showed an advantage for teams in all three leagues traveling west to east, but the winning effect was most significant in the NBA. The study only found an association, but suggest circadian rhythms of the athletes are affected. Circadian rhythms are the physical and mental changes responding to daylight and darkness within a 24-hour cycle.
“These results highlight the importance of circadian rhythms in sport performance. They also raise concerns about well-established practices such as early training sessions and late-night athletic competitions and the possible negative effects on performance and health,” said study co-author Genevieve Forest, from the University of Quebec, Outaouais.
“The effect of the circadian disadvantage transcends the type of sport being played and needs to be addressed for greater equity among the western and eastern teams in professional sports,” she said in an American Academy of Sleep Medicine news release.
The study was published in the journal Sleep. It was also presented Tuesday at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine meeting in Denver.
More information
The U.S. National Library of Medicine offers advice on jet lag prevention.
Source: HealthDay
Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Related
-
Short-Term Hormone Therapy for Menopause Won’t Harm Women’s BrainsFour years of hormone replacement therapy to help women...
- November 22, 2024
-
Fibroids, Endometriosis Linked to Shorter Life SpansTwo conditions common during women’s childbearing years may increase...
- November 22, 2024
-
-120x134.jpg)
More Hot Flashes Could Mean Higher Odds for Type 2 DiabetesMenopausal women with frequent hot flashes and night sweats...
- November 4, 2024
-
Late-Life Menopause Linked to Higher Asthma RiskWomen who enter menopause at a later age have...
- October 30, 2024
