How to Stay Healthy In-Flight
Jennifer Billock August 14, 2018
As more and more people take to the air to travel across the world, concerns of health and safety while flying are hitting the forefront of everyone’s minds. Quay Snyder from the Aviation Medicine Advisory Service shares his top eight tips for staying healthy while in flight and avoiding the dreaded after-flight sickness.
In nearly a decade, only one person has died on a commercial flight – compared to car crashes, which claim about 40,000 lives a year. But still, staying healthy while on a flight is a constant concern for air travelers, who frequently worry about blood clots and other airborne illnesses. Quay Snyder, president and CEO of the Colorado-based Aviation Medicine Advisory Service, pilot, and flight instructor, notes that air travel is hardly ever dangerous. But just to make sure everyone feels good about it, he shared with the South China Morning Post his top eight tips for staying healthy while in flight. Here are the highlights.
1. Know what’s fact and what’s fiction.
Sure, the air on a plane may be recirculated, but it’s filtered and exchanged more than the air in a school or office. So sitting by a coughing person? Not the most likely thing to get you sick, as long as they’re covering their mouth. “They really need to be within about one or two rows of someone who is actively coughing and not actively suppressing that cough to be at risk for respiratory transmission,” Snyder told the South China Morning Post. “The risk is actually higher in the airport and even in the lines or the jetway or the restaurants at the airport.”
2. Sit by the window.
This is an airflow benefit, Snyder says. In a standard plane, the air comes down from the cabin ceiling and leaves through vents at the floor by the window. You get the most filtered air when you sit next to the window.
3. Bring your antibacterial wipes.
You don’t know who’s been touching that tray table, armrest, or seatbelt.
4. Keep moving.
You won’t get a blood clot just from being on a plane, but be sure to get up and walk around if you’re on a long flight.
5. Drink a lot – of water.
Don’t get dehydrated thanks to a low humidity level on the plane. Drink as much water as possible to keep yourself saturated – it’ll lessen jetlag and make you feel better overall after the flight.
[Photo: Getty Images]
Only 1 person has died in a decade on a commercial airline? What about the 2 Malaysia Airlines that crashed? The German Wings flight? Recently a Russian plane crashed. 49 people died in a Colgan Air crash in February 2009. 2 people died in Asiana crash in San Fancisco crash in July 2013. That is in the last 10 years if the author means just the USA. I'm guessing that the author means flights that haven't crashed, but then, why does she compare it to crashed cars? That's apples to oranges. Yes, flying is statistically safer than car travel, but comparing non-crashing flights to crashing cars is disingenuous. Furthermore, the premise of the article is staying healthy on a flight. That implies what precautions a person takes while on a flight that completes safely. What does that have to do with car crashes. People riding in cars would presumably take similar precautions to avoid getting sick.