Travelling by plane? Follow these tips to avoid emerging bloated, dehydrated and exhausted when taking to the skies. Humans never evolved to be transported through the skies in a long metal tube at more than 800km/h, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that aeroplane travel has some pretty unusual effects on our body. A recent scientific study in the journal Thorax made headlines after finding the cabin pressure at cruising altitude appears to lower blood pressure and increase heart rate, even among young, healthy passengers.
This is particularly exacerbated by in-flight alcohol consumption and, as a result, the authors recommended either avoiding or at least minimising the number of alcoholic drinks you have on a flight, especially if you have pre-existing heart problems. Dr Stephen Hughes, a senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University and an emergency medicine consultant, says there is a range of physiological and psychological adaptations that happen to the body as a consequence of being on a plane. To begin with, humans are not supposed to be at 35,000ft (10,600m), the typical cruising altitude of a commercial plane.
At these heights, oxygen levels are so low that without the inbuilt cabin pressurisation system, we would rapidly lose consciousness. Instead, to allow the crew and passengers to breathe comfortably, the cabin simulates the kind of pressure we would experience near 6000-8000ft, about halfway up Mont Blanc. “This leaves you slightly short of oxygen,” says Hughe.
