On long-haul flights, keep moving and drinking… water!

[24 June 2009 - 09h15]

Are you flying off to some distant destination? During the flight it’s important to keep moving and to drink plenty of fluids… non-alcoholic of course.

These recommendations apply to all passengers. And for people who have a history of heart, lung or circulatory problems, they must be followed to the letter. The aim is to reduce the risk of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis – the notorious economy class syndrome.

According to a study carried out in 2003, once we have been in the air for 12 hours, one passenger in every 200,000 falls victim to a cardiopulmonary accident. The risk increases after only 4 hours of flying and peaks after 8 hours.

This is particularly worrying thought when we consider that there have never been as many airline passengers as there are today, with around 2 billion people flying every year. Furthermore, the most modern aircraft, such as the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 777LR, are capable of flying non-stop for as long as 18 hours!

Cardiopulmonary accidents are caused by a number of coinciding factors, mainly the fact of being seated for a long period of time and also becoming dehydrated. Which is why on a long plane journey it is so important to get out of your seat regularly, walk up and down the aisles, do some exercises and to drink plenty of water or other non-alcoholic drinks. The air circulating in aircraft cabins is very dry and lower in oxygen than the air at ground level. This makes an aircraft an ideal place for blood clots to develop and an embolism or phlebitis to occur.

Source : The Lancet, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60209-9 - European Society of Cardiology

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