UPLIFT Featured in The Boston Globe!

April 17,2018

 
Uplift says its app can teach an accupressure technique to curb jet lag.

The vacation you’ve been planning for weeks is finally here. You step off the plane, and the first thing you want to do is . . . sleep?

When you book a trip, long flights and jet lag are often a package deal. Here’s hoping that the hotel’s beds are comfortable. Exhaustion, nausea, headaches, and insomnia associated with jet lag are felt by about 93 percent of travelers at some point, according to the American Sleep Association.

Many travelers will ease into a new sleep schedule in the days before a trip, or resort to supplements such as melatonin. But Charles Krebs contends that he has found a way to help curb jet lag symptoms naturally — with acupressure.

Traveling to teach neurology was taking a toll on Krebs, who got his PhD in biology and physiology from Boston University. So he came up with a solution and used it on himself for years. In 2016 he teamed up with CEO and cofounder Ted Finn to create the company Uplift Ventures LLC to share the technique with others.

Krebs’s method is carried out by simultaneously pressing two pressure points on the left side of the body for one minute, then repeating on the right. In January 2018, Uplift launched a mobile app to teach others how to perform the acupressure on themselves.

The app includes instructional videos and a timer. After inputting your travel itinerary, the app uses an algorithm to calculate two pressure points to use once you land. There are more than 120 combinations using 12 points on each side of the body.

Jet lag occurs when your body’s natural circadian rhythm is out of sync with the time of day, which happens when you cross time zones. According to Krebs, holding the two pressure points at the same time resets the internal body clock, easing the effects of jet lag.

Acupressure is derived from traditional Chinese medicine and is based on the belief that there are meridians, or energy channels, that run throughout the body. Acupressure is all about balancing energy.

In total, Krebs’s procedure takes about 7 to 10 minutes. For first-timers, the app suggests trying the technique in a comfortable environment, such as a hotel. Krebs and Finn, two seasoned travelers who are experienced with the technique, conduct the acupressure as soon as the plane hits the tarmac, while they are still in their seats.

“Charles and I have developed a friendship,” Finn said. “He shared the solution with me, and after traveling 40 years without it, I’m like, ‘Wow, this is really something.’ I used it on a number of trips to Europe. It was amazing.”

The points used in Uplift are all located in the wrist and lower arm, or between the arch of the foot and your lower calf. Krebs and Finn joke that finding the points is easier than playing the game Twister.

“We really wanted it to work for people,” Krebs said, who hopes Uplift will help travelers reduce their transition time after traveling long distances. A lot of quality time can be lost to jet lag, he and Finn said.

Similarly, Diane Iuliano, a professor at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences’ New England School of Acupuncture, turns to acupuncture when she flies. She said it’s an effective way to ward off her symptoms of jet lag.

Iuliano has made 24 trips to Japan, where she teaches and studies acupuncture. She and fellow colleagues will perform acupuncture on themselves before the plane takes off.

“When a group of us go to Japan, and we sit on the plane, it looks like we are studying each other’s ears,” she said.

What they are really doing is placing press balls and press tacks on acupuncture points in the ear. Iuliano leaves the tacks in for the duration of her trip. Certain acupuncture techniques can also be performed in the days leading up to the trip, to prepare for the time change, she said.

Rick Harris, associate professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan, has studied the effectiveness of acupressure as a remedy for fatigue in cancer survivors. He thinks it is possible that acupressure could help with jet lag, too.

“Acupressure, specifically at points that make you more alert, would probably help with tiredness [and symptoms of] jet lag,” he said.

There are, of course, skeptics of acupressure. Krebs and Finn said they tested Uplift on 500 travelers, resulting in a 92 percent success rate. They did admit, though, that the trial was conducted on mostly volunteers — friends, business people, and others who sought out Krebs’s work or bought the app during its trial period.

For the skeptics, other proven measures against jet lag include adjusting your sleep schedule during the days before a trip, exposing yourself to sunlight once you land to regulate your body clock, and avoiding alcohol and caffeine before bedtime, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine also recommends taking melatonin. A survey by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health found that 3.1 million adults used melatonin in 2012 for sleep problems, including jet lag.

The Uplift app is available on the Apple Store and Google Play for $9.99 a year. According to Finn, the app currently has around 300 users.

Nicole DeFeudis can be reached at nicole.defeudis@globe.com.

 

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Uplift Joins the Global Business Travel Association

April 17,2018

 

 

September 9, 2018 

Contact: Patrick Gardner

Phone: (508) 785-2300

Email: support@upliftventuresllc.com

 

Uplift Joins the Global Business Travel Association

[ Breakthrough Jet Lag Discovery Featured @ Innovation Row]

Uplift, the revolutionary mobile app designed to address the devastating effects of jet lag; thus providing solutions for global health and wellness issues important to corporate travelers. Uplift believes in enhancing your travel experience, performance, and your most valuable commodity: time. Out of thousands of travel related startups across the global, Uplift was selected to be featured on Innovation Row at the 2018 Global Business Travel Association Convention (GBTA) held last month in San Diego, California, and is now an active member of the GBTA. The GBTA supports the 9000-plus professionals in the $1.4 trillion dollar travel industry, and strives to be the world’s leading source of travel knowledge for business travelers.

This was the largest conference in the history of the GBTA, featuring over 6,700 attendees and more than 1,300 buyers. This milestone ties into Uplift’s mission of finding solutions for global health and wellness issues, as it allowed the Uplift team to engage with many executives in charge of sourcing new and innovative solutions for their traveling executives. In a large industry, buyers are now focusing more and more on productivity, wellness, and performance related solutions that promote better work/life balance for their organization. After achieving an important milestone, the GBTA Convention could not have occurred at a more opportune time as Uplift recently launched their new Corporate App, which allows travel buyers to add more value to their corporate wellness initiatives.

“Attending the GBTA Conference was certainly a wise move for the Uplift Brand. Not only did it present the perfect platform to launch our new Corporate App and educate the industry about this solution, but it strengthened our brand within the business travel community helping us grow our user-base,” says Uplift CEO Ted Finn.

For more information on Uplift, please visit www.upliftnaturally.com. If you wish to learn more about exciting news about how Uplift is impacting the global travel community please contact Ted Finn at tedfinn@upliftventuresllc.com.

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UPLIFT Jet Lag Solution Recommended by Global Magazine - Travel + Leisure

April 17,2018

MARCH 2019 ISSUE - Fresh Ideas for Beating Jet Lag!

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Uplift Mobile App Starts Measuring Users Annual Jet Lag!

April 17,2018

Contact: Ted Finn

tedfinn@upliftnaturally.com

 (508) 785-2300

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                               

Uplift Mobile App Starts Measuring Users Annual Jet Lag!

DOVER, MA (July 1, 2019) – Uplift Ventures announced today its consumer phone app will start measuring a user’s cumulative, annual Jet Lag by keeping track of the time zones crossed or “Zonage”.  

“For the first time, we will provide global travelers with insight and data they can share on the number of time zones they cross each year,” said Ted Finn, Co-Founder and & CEO of Uplift Ventures, LLC.

“Now that Uplift has developed a protocol to address and neutralize Jet Lag, we need to develop a vocabulary to discuss the problem and the metric to measure it”, Ted continued.  “With the latest update to our mobile app, Uplift will calculate our users cumulative, annual Jet Lag by measuring the number of time zones the user crosses. We refer to this as your Zonage and everyone should know their Zonage.”  NASA research tells us that for each time zone crossed it can take a traveler as long as 12 hours to one full day for their body to fully adjust. In his past career scaling a global shoe company, Ted would cross at least 150 time zones every year and saw the value in this new feature. The entire Uplift team is proud of this new feature as it empowers travelers everywhere with meaningful insight to track and share other layers of your travel experience.  In a recent correspondence to shareholders, CFO Bill Davlin says, “My only wish was that the Uplift Mobile App existed during the last 20 years ago, I could have spared myself countless weeks of bravely working through painful days and sleepless nights. Everyone should know their Zonage”.

 

Are you traveling without Jet Lag yet? What is your Zonage?

About Uplift Ventures LLC:

Uplift Ventures, LLC’s mission is to improve the health and wellness of airline travelers and night shift workers around the globe. Uplift Ventures LLC was Co-Founded by Dr. Charles T. Krebs, a world leader in Energetic Kinesiology and the creator of Biorhythmic Acupressure. Dr. Krebs is a global author and co-author of 3 books in English and 1 in German and over 50 published papers on kinesiology, acupressure and neuroscience.  Dr. Krebs is the creator of the Learning Enhancement Acupressure Program (LEAP) that is used by thousands of practitioners in 9 countries to treat dyslexia, ADD, ADHD and more. Dr. Krebs is a practitioner at the Lydian Center in Cambridge, MA where he does research and holds a PhD in Biology & Physiology from Boston University. For more information on Uplift, please visit www.upliftnaturally.com. If you wish to learn more about exciting news about how Uplift is impacting the global travel community please contact Ted Finn: tedfinn@upliftnaturally.com.

 

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UPLIFT Jet Lag solution recently mentioned in TIME Magazine!

April 17,2018

The new Qantas Airways non-stop flight from NYC to Sydney is set to be the world’s longest flight at 20 hours! Read what Time Magazine has to see about this amazing travel industry milestone and what implications this has for Jet Lag solutions like Uplift...

 

Human Guinea Pigs Prepare for World’s First 20-Hour Commercial Flight

BY ANGUS WHITLEY / BLOOMBERG 

OCTOBER 16, 2019

For decades, travelers have stoically endured jet lag as an unavoidable menace on long journeys. Now, as airlines push for record-breaking non-stop flights halfway around the planet, efforts to counter the debilitating symptoms are turning into a billion-dollar industry.

Fresh insight into the physical and emotional toll of ultra-long haul travel should emerge this weekend when Qantas Airways Ltd. flies direct from New York to Sydney. No airline has ever completed that route without stopping. At nearly 20 hours, it’s set to be the world’s longest flight, leaving the U.S. on Friday and landing in Australia during its Sunday morning.

This will be more than an endurance exercise. Scientists and medical researchers in the cabin will turn Qantas’s brand-new Boeing Co. Dreamliner into a high-altitude laboratory. They’ll screen the brains of the pilots for alertness, while monitoring the food, sleep and activity of the few dozen passengers — including yours truly. The aim is to see how humans hold up to the ordeal.

The proliferation of super-long flights — Singapore Airlines Ltd. resumed non-stop services to New York last year — is partly driven by the development of lighter, more aerodynamic aircraft that can fly further.

The physical burden on customers is putting a renewed focus on jet lag, and creating a supermarket of products and home-made creations to ease the suffering. In that shopping basket: melatonin tablets, Pfizer Inc.’s anti-anxiety medication Xanax, and Propeaq light-emitting glasses that claim to get the body back on track. And yes, there’s an app for that and many other potential remedies.

The potential customer base is staggering. The International Air Transport Association expects some 4.6 billion people to take a flight in 2019, a total that will jump to 8.2 billion in 2037.

No airline has ever completed this 20-hour route.

The Qantas flight will have scientists on board to test the effects on passengers and pilots. More @businesshttps://t.co/qGMAC4q6ZI pic.twitter.com/5rOKbim8DB

— Bloomberg TicToc (@tictoc) October 15, 2019

Demand for jet-lag therapies is growing at about 6% each year and the industry will be worth $732 million in 2023, according to BIS Healthcare. The broader sleeping-disorder market — dominated by pills — is worth $1.5 billion and will swell to $1.7 billion by 2023, GlobalData says, adding that more than 80 drugs targeting disturbed sleep are in clinical development.

New York-Sydney Fast Facts

16,200 km (10,066 miles) in 19.5 hours
50 people including crew
No cargo, limited catering
Classed as private flight QF7879
Qantas has run hypothetical flight plans for weeks

New York-Sydney Fast Facts

Jet lag typically strikes when a traveler crosses three times zones or more in quick order, leaving the body’s internal clock running to the timetable at home. The chief complaint after touching down is often overwhelming fatigue during the day or merciless insomnia at night. The fallout can be worse heading east, because traveling in that direction effectively reverses the normal day-and-night cycle.

Unsettling as they are, those ailments barely do jet lag justice.

Each of the billions of cells in the human body has its own clock, and vital processes including heart function, food absorption and metabolism are all disrupted when organs get out of step, said Carrie Partch, a biochemist and associate professor at the University of California Santa Cruz who has studied the circadian rhythm for 20 years.

“Jet lag is more than just an inconvenience,” Partch said in an interview. “It’s pretty devastating physiologically. If you’re a constant traveler, you’ll probably put on more weight, you’ll probably have cardiovascular challenges and you may have some behavioral changes.”

While researchers in this field understand how light enters the brain and adjusts the master clock, they’re still learning more. As recently as 2017, scientists won a Nobel prize for discovering molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythms. Even if the core proteins of a rodent can be manipulated in a laboratory to speed up internal clock adjustment, a fast-acting pill that can do the same for frequent flyers is a way off, Partch said.

An App For That

NAME WHAT IT DOES WHAT IT COSTS              
Timeshifter Creates personalized anti-jet lag plans telling you when to seek or avoid sunlight, caffeine or sleep — based on the destination             $36.99 a year
Uplift Generates a self-administered, five-minute acupressure plan according to your new time zone $19.99 a year
ByeByeJetLag Plays a 15-minute, in-flight “audio guide” to set your body clock to the destination $7.99
Entrain Tells you one thing before your trip: when to seek and avoid sunlight Free

Scientists have found exercise and the right food can help synchronize the body to a new time zone, though research has also repeatedly shown sunlight is the most powerful tool. A University of Boulder Colorado study in 2017 said body-clock adjustment can be rapidly achieved by exposure to natural light alone.

U.S.

Flight Attendants 'Begging' Not to Fly on 737 Max Planes

Friday’s flight from New York, and another from London later this year, are key tests for Qantas as it prepares to start direct commercial services from those cities to Sydney as soon as 2022. The airline calls it Project Sunrise. If successful, Qantas says other super-long, non-stop routes from Australia’s east coast to South America and Africa might follow.

Airbus SE and Boeing are vying to supply the carrier with new long-range aircraft that can reach the destination with a full load and fuel to spare. Qantas plans to make a decision to press ahead with these flights, or ditch the idea, by the end of 2019.

ULTRA-LONG FLIGHTS IN THE AGE OF FLIGHT SHAME
Qantas is testing Project Sunrise amid concern about the environmental impact of air travel and the emergence of the buzzword flygskam, or flight shame in Swedish, which encourages a shift to other means of transport. Carbon dioxide emissions by airlines rose 32% in the five years through 2018, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation, which ranks Australia 10th worldwide for passenger-related carbon emissions. Qantas says carbon emissions from its research flights will be fully offset through projects, including employing indigenous rangers to look after land using traditional practices. The carrier is using Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners for the test routes, which it says use 20% less fuel than similar-sized aircraft.

It’s not just crossing time zones that upsets passengers. General fatigue, poor-quality sleep, as well as the dry and pressurized cabin air exacerbate jet-lag symptoms, said Conrad Moreira, a medical director at the Travel Doctor-TMVC clinic in Sydney who has worked in the field for more than a decade.

“I’ve seen people disoriented a week after a flight,” Moreira said in an interview. He prescribes a range of sleep-inducing drugs, particularly for anxious flyers. They including Stilnox — also known as Ambien — and Xanax. Tablets containing melatonin, naturally produced in the body to promote sleep, can also help, he said.

BUSINESS

Australia's Qantas Tests 19 ½ Hour London-Sydney Flight

Jet lag has been confounding travelers since, well, the jet era. There are already at least half a dozen ultra-long flights lasting 17 hours or more, including an Auckland-Doha service by Qatar Airways. Qantas last year started direct services to London from Perth on Australia’s western seaboard.

Just like all those routes, Qantas’s planned network of longer, clock-busting flights will be prey to rising fuel prices. And beyond that, there’s a growing movement to encourage flyers to cut their carbon emissions. Still, the airline’s stock has soared about fivefold in five years. Qantas rose 2.9% Tuesday to its highest since August 2018.

Addressing the health implications of ultra-long flights is critical for Qantas. It must gain permission from Australia’s civil aviation regulator for cabin crew to be on duty longer than 20 hours. The airline also needs a new deal with pilots who will fly the extra-long routes on new aircraft.

Managing staff exhaustion from lengthy trips is an issue for the entire industry. According to IATA’s latest fatigue-management manual, some cabin crew can spend almost 21 hours awake on the day of a long-haul flight — even when their duty period is shorter than 10 hours.

Qantas’s ultra-long direct flights will be priced squarely at the business traveler, since they stand to win precious hours on the ground at the destination, said Rico Merkert, professor of transport and supply-chain management at the University of Sydney’s business school.

“It could be a game changer if they get it right,” Merkert said.

CONTACT US AT EDITORS@TIME.COM.

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Uplift Invited to Startup Grind's Annual Global Conference in Silicon Valley!

April 17,2018

                

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UPLIFT VENTURES SELECTED TO EXHIBIT AT 2020 STARTUP GRIND GLOBAL CONFERENCE

Dover, MA January 3, 2020 - Uplift Ventures has been selected by Startup Grind, powered by Google for Startups, for the Startup Exhibition in the Grind category at the 2020 Startup Grind Global Conference held February 11-12th in Silicon Valley.

Uplift is the World’s 1st Biohack for Jet Lag.  The Uplift Jet Lag mobile app guides you to Biohack your body clock and reset it to your new time zone.   A custom solution is generated for your very own travel itinerary, the protocol takes about 5 minutes when you land in your new time zone. Since launching last year, this revolutionary solution has positively impacted the performance and wellness of countless business travelers and currently being adopted by key traveling executives within some of the largest Fortune 1,000 Enterprises and Agencies in the world, in addition to numerous professional athletes.   

About Uplift Ventures

After 20+ years of Research & Development, Uplift Ventures was founded to provide natural solutions to global problems.  Uplift provides a solution for Jet Lag aka Desynchronosis. Uplift is a SaaS mobile application that provides a video-guided acupressure solution to re-sync your body clock to your new time zone and neutralizes Jet Lag in 3 steps that take about 5 minutes. This solution was developed by our Co-founder, Dr. Charles T. Krebs, and tested successfully on global travelers. 

To learn more please visit www.upliftnaturally.com 

Uplift Partnerships & Media Inquiries:

Ted Finn

andy.jacques@synergyconsulting.us

1.508.785.2300

About Startup Grind

Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting 3,500,000 founders in more than 600 chapters globally. Founded in Silicon Valley, they nurture startup ecosystems in 125+ countries through events, media, and partnerships with organizations such as Google for Startups. Their local monthly events feature successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Startup Grind also hosts two flagship conferences annually — the Global Conference and Europe Conference. To date, Startup Grind has helped millions of entrepreneurs find mentorship, connect to partners and hires, pursue funding, and reach new users. Learn more at StartupGrind.com

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Uplift joins CCB Cycling as an official Wellness & Performance partner.

April 17,2018

           

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UPLIFT VENTURES JOINS CCB PRO CYCLING

Dover, MA January 16, 2020 - Uplift Ventures has been selected by CCB as their wellness & performance partner as they officially launch their new 2020 season.  The club which was started on the North Shore of Boston in 1979 as a small elite race program has grown in membership and international notoriety over the past 40 years. Despite - or maybe because of - the mixed nature of the club, over the years the club has gained tremendous standing in the region and has been home to many professional bike racers during its formative years, from Tim Johnson, Gavin Mannion, and Tyler Hamilton.

 

“We are excited to partner with Uplift this season since we have riders who travel across multiple time zones to compete, ”says Tim Mitchell, Principle of CCB Foundation. To date, the CCB club’s elite team has received invitations to, and raced in world-class races in Belgium, Ireland, France, UK, Ireland, and China as well as all across the USA. In addition, the club's storied pink, blue and white jersey is well known - not just in the Northeast US, but across the country.

 

“As an avid cyclist myself, I see tremendous value in this new partnership as these amazing athletes no longer have to endure the disruption Jet Lag can have on their sleep, performance, and recovery during their travels to compete in these long grueling races. In this beautiful sport where one second can be the difference between making the podium or not, Uplift can truly optimize the athlete’s performance in the most natural way,” says Uplift CEO & Co-founder Ted Finn.  

 

About Uplift Ventures

Uplift is the World’s 1st Biohack for Jet Lag developed after 20+ years of Research & Development by world-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Charles Krebs.  The Uplift Jet Lag mobile app guides you to Biohack your body clock and reset it to your new time zone through simple acupressure techniques. A video guided custom solution is generated for your very own travel itinerary, and the protocol takes about 5 minutes when you land in your new time zone. Since launching last year, this revolutionary solution has positively impacted the performance and wellness of countless business travelers within some of the largest Fortune 1,000 Enterprises in the world, in addition to numerous professional athletes. To learn more please visit www.upliftnaturally.com 

Uplift Partnerships & Media Inquiries:

Ted Finn 

tedfinn@upliftnaturally.com

 

About CCB

"CCB Cycling Education Foundation 501(c)(3) non/profit program. The CCB CEF fields both a men’s U23 and women’s team, competing in its road and gravel. The men’s team races under the name Foundation CCB, with the women racing under the name CCB BikeReg.  The club has fielded an elite/pro level team every year since 1976, making it the longest continually running program of that type in the US. The CCB program has consistently graduated its U23 riders to professional teams in both North America and Europe up to the World Tour level, but notably also requires its riders to also be enrolled in a post-secondary education program whilst riders are on the team. CCB emphasizes the healthy and balanced development of the student-athlete, allowing each rider to pursue their academic and athletic goals at a high level; it is the only cycling program in the US with this type of requirement racing at the elite/pro level."

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Download Your Next Jet Lag Free Trip Now!


Our guarantee to you, try it before you buy it with our 30 day free trial. Then only $24.99 per year or $3.99 per month for unlimited global travel. 

1) Sleep Better.

2) Recover Faster.

3) Perform Better.

Download Uplift now and save your next trip. 

 

"Lost Time is Never Found Again" Ben Franklin

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