in hospitals, which can catch airborne microbes like bacteria and viruses.
To maintain a constant pressure as air is pumped in, the airplane has a pressure valve which lets some air out. The result is a complete fresh air change in the cabin every five or ten minutes—much faster than in most office buildings and even faster than in many hospital rooms.
Ear Pressure
When you fly, the first sense that the air pressure is changing is probably a feeling somewhere in your inner ear. This is because the air that is trapped inside your body—including the little pocket of air behind each eardrum—expands as the airplane rises and the pressure drops. The expanding air presses against the ear drum, which can be uncomfortable. The same thing happens in reverse when landing: Air pushes in on the eardrum as the pressure rises.
Air pressure in airplanes is serious business. If the cabin depressurizes while you are at cruise altitude and you don’t put on an oxygen mask, you can become unconscious within thirty seconds. In such an emergency, pilots will always immediately descend to a safe altitude; if they didn’t, anyone not wearing a mask could die within minutes.
Sure, you can catch a cold or flu from the passenger in the seat next to you, but it’s extremely unlikely that you’d catch something from someone several rows away because the cabin air is filtered and changed so often. In fact, the air quality is as good as or better than it is in other forms of public transportation.
Air expands as the airplane lifts into the sky. That’s why you shouldn’t fly for two or three days after extensive surgery or dental work: Tiny air bubbles trapped in your teeth could expand and be very painful. Similarly, don’t fly for twelve hours after you scuba dive because air
"trapped" in your blood and gas trapped in your bowels could expand.
Fortunately, the inner ear is connected to the back of the throat by the eustachian tube, through which air can escape. Unfortunately, this tube has no muscles of its own to keep it open, so it’s usually in a collapsed state. Chewing gum, yawning, blowing up a balloon, making funny faces, and swallowing are all ways to get the eustachian tube to open for a moment so that the air can equalize on both sides of the eardrum, which we hear as a “pop.”
Another method, called the Valsalva
technique, is to close your mouth, pinch your nose, and blow gently against your closed nostrils.
Not only are colds, sinus infections, and allergies associated with fluids and swelling that stop your eustachian tubes from opening, but they also trap air in the sinus cavities behind your forehead and cheeks, which can be excruciating. If you’re congested like this, you should
probably take a nonprescription decongestant a half-hour before takeoff. Of course, if the flight is a long one, you’ll need to take another before the descent and landing. Some people have found EarPlanes ear plugs useful, as they slow the change in pressure against the
eardrums.
Even though airliners carry medical kits and can quickly be in radio contact with doctors on the ground, about 100 people die each year while flying, from heart attacks, seizures, or other medical emergencies.
This ear pain can be really unpleasant for infants and small children who don’t know what’s happening to them. Drinking from a bottle or nursing can help. A crying baby can be
annoying, but remember that crying actually helps the baby open its eustachian tubes. One remedy for ear pain (your child’s or your own) is to put hot, wet paper towels in the bottom of two cups and then hold the cups against the ears. The warm steam soothes the eardrums, but make sure no hot water gets into the ears!
General Health
While it’s nice to have fresh air coming from outside the airplane, the problem is that air at high altitudes is extremely dry and it doesn’t take very long before people become somewhat dehydrated. Add to that the general stress put on the body from a lower-pressure
environment, a lack of sleep, a change in diet, and the stress of flying in general (getting to the flight on time, and so on)—it’s no wonder that a passenger can feel poorly stepping off the airplane. Here are some tips that should help:
● Drink eight ounces of water for each hour you’re in the air so you don’t get dehydrated.
● Avoid alcohol, caffeine (in coffee, tea, Coke, Pepsi, chocolate, and so on), salty beverages (like tomato juice), and salty foods (pretzels, peanuts, and pretty much anything else that comes in a small snack bag). All of these items are dehydrating.
● Rub moisturizer on your hands and face before takeoff, and reapply in the middle of a long flight to counteract dehydration.
● Eat a healthy snack or meal before flying. Some studies show that drinking an
electrolyte-rich “sports drink” before takeoff helps the body recover from flying faster.
Bring some food on board with you, too; it’ll likely be more pleasant than what the airline offers.
● Wear noise-cancellation headphones while in flight. These headphones can remove much of the ambient roaring noise that causes drowsiness and discomfort.
● The in-flight air may dry out your eyes and your sinuses, so wear glasses instead of contact lenses, and on long flights keep your sinuses moist with a sinus spray.
● Human bodies were not designed to sit in the same place for a long period of time. Get up and stretch once an hour (walk around, too, if the person next to you isn’t snoring into his or her pillow). Plus, when sitting, don’t cross your legs; it restricts circulation.
Try to stretch a little before landing, too, so your muscles are warmed up before you have to stand up and walk.
● Get a good night’s sleep before your flight. This not only makes you feel better but helps your body resist anything infectious that you might be exposed to.
● If you often feel ill on airplanes, you might be suffering from motion sickness. One solution is to sit by the window, where you can see the horizon or a cloud or anything that’s not moving.
● Try to avoid touching your nose, eyes, and mouth while flying to help prevent viruses from entering your system. Also, wash your hands before traveling and regularly
throughout a long flight, just in case you do touch your eyes or mouth without thinking.
And don’t visit the lavatory in bare feet or wearing only socks (don’t laugh; a surprising number of people do this).
You may have heard of economy class
syndrome, another name for deep vein
thrombosis (DVT ). It’s a potentially deadly disorder in which blood clots form in veins and deep within muscle tissue. DVT can strike anyone who sits in the same place for too long, whether flying economy class or first class, or even on a train or bus.
One study showed that between 100 and 150 passengers arriving in Tokyo’s Narita airport are treated for it each year.
With that in mind, it’s very important to get up and move around on long flights (anything more than an hour or two). There are also many exercises that you can do in your seat.
Walking up and down the aisles is great exercise.
Ankle circles: Lift your feet off the floor and draw circles with your toes, rotating your ankles.
Repeat for about fifteen seconds, and then reverse direction.
Knee lifts: Raise each leg six or eight inches, bending the knee. Repeat twenty or thirty times per leg.
Shoulder roll: Rotate your shoulders in a circle by hunching forward, then raising shoulders, then gently pulling them back, then dropping them down.
Repeat five times.
Arm stretch: Raise both arms as high above your head as possible (ignore the people behind you). Use one hand to gently pull the opposite wrist for about ten seconds. Then repeat using
the opposite hand.
Neck roll: Relax your shoulders and drop your head forward gently. Roll your head to the left and hold about five seconds, then roll forward and to the right about five seconds. Repeat four times.