fever on long flights
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2
fever on long flights
Does anyone else get fevers on long flights? I've flown 3 RT international flights in the last year, and felt feverish on all of them. A low fever, but keeps me from sleeping unless I take tylenol. I can't find anything on google (possibly bad air quality or mild altitude sickness?) and am not sure if my body is just insane. This never happens on domestic or shorter flights. The fever starts a few hours into the flight, and ends 2 hours after the flight (just long enough to make customs miserable).
#2
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Programs: Hyatt Diamond, Fairmont Platinum, Aeroplan Diamond, HHonors Gold, SPG Gold
Posts: 18,686
Does anyone else get fevers on long flights? I've flown 3 RT international flights in the last year, and felt feverish on all of them. A low fever, but keeps me from sleeping unless I take tylenol. I can't find anything on google (possibly bad air quality or mild altitude sickness?) and am not sure if my body is just insane. This never happens on domestic or shorter flights. The fever starts a few hours into the flight, and ends 2 hours after the flight (just long enough to make customs miserable).
I noticed our leg HOU-CUN, the sun was unusually hot aganst the plane, and cabin temperature soared.. same thing but to a lesser extent CUN-LAX..
Perhaps the radiation has something to do with it, and how your body reacts to it.. but just a theory..
#3
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 3,096
It could be a form motion sickness. Not all motion sickness presents as nausea.
Some symptoms include confusion, headache, diarrhea and fever.
NASA also mentions "the space stupids", something experienced by both astronauts, pilots and commercial airplance passengers which is a mild form of confusion and slow response generally brought on by fluctuating g's (turbulence, speed changes) and slightly off pressure settings.
Some physiolgists suspect that the near 0 humidity causes a feeling of dryness in the nasal passages which then fools the brain into initiating a histimine response. In otherwords, your brain suddenly thinks you have a cold and starts up a fever (remember, fevers are not part of the disease, but a defense response to a disease)
I sometimes get this too, but only in flashes and it does not last.
Some symptoms include confusion, headache, diarrhea and fever.
NASA also mentions "the space stupids", something experienced by both astronauts, pilots and commercial airplance passengers which is a mild form of confusion and slow response generally brought on by fluctuating g's (turbulence, speed changes) and slightly off pressure settings.
Some physiolgists suspect that the near 0 humidity causes a feeling of dryness in the nasal passages which then fools the brain into initiating a histimine response. In otherwords, your brain suddenly thinks you have a cold and starts up a fever (remember, fevers are not part of the disease, but a defense response to a disease)
I sometimes get this too, but only in flashes and it does not last.

