As the Xmas break approaches, many of you will be getting ready to fly overseas
(well, as long as you aren’t flying Qantas this week). However, no matter what
airline you choose, anybody who flies - regularly or just the annual travelers,
is in danger of getting the “Economy Class Syndrome.” This is a condition that
has become prevalent with the advent of ‘long haul’ sectors, but fortunately,
there are ways to prevent this happening, so read on.
Getting right down to tin-tacks, the Economy Class Syndrome
is just a fancy title for a very common condition called Deep Venous Thrombosis,
or more simply, a blood clot in a deep vein in the legs. We shorten this to DVT,
because we doctors like acronyms, and what’s more they easier to spell than the
long names.
DVT’s occur not just in plane passengers, but in hospitals in
the post operative period. In fact, the latest figures from Australia would
indicate that 50 percent of people who have orthopaedic surgery are likely to
get a DVT. Even 20 percent of general surgery patients are in line for this
condition. These are not large DVT’s I hasten to add, but are demonstrable in
the blood, without their producing clinical symptoms.
And all that gets me back to my daily medication, prescribed
for me by the new generation’s hope for salvation, the young Dr. Jonathan
Corness, a new breed medico, about whom I am very proud - but I digress. Dr.
Jonathan prescribed one of the oldest medications in the world for me - Aspirin.
So why would this up-to-the-minute medico prescribe something as old hat as
Aspirin? Quite simply, because it works! (Which is not something I can say
without hesitation about some of the drugs available these days.)
In therapeutic doses to stop headaches and relieve arthritis,
we are looking at something between 300-600 mgms four times a day for most
people and Aspirin works well here. However, at that dosage you run the risk of
upsetting your stomach, to actual bleeding and ulceration. There are also people
who show allergic reactions to Aspirin, from asthma right the way through to
anaphylactic shock and death! Yes, this is potent medicine.
However, there are other conditions for which Aspirin is the
drug of choice, and not in the big doses either. We are talking here of 100 mgm
doses taken once a day only. This way the chances of allergy/asthma and gastric
bleeding are greatly reduced. What the Aspirin does is work on the aggregation
of platelets. This is where the red blood cells sort of form into clumps and
these become clots and are the start of the Deep Vein Thromboses (DVT’s). And
this is what happens in the Economy Class Syndrome, if you are unlucky.
Now medical science has found that by taking 100 mgm of
Aspirin daily you lower your chances of heart attack, something much higher on
my personal risk table than Economy Class Syndrome. You see, clotting can occur
in many areas of the body, and a clot in the coronary arteries can be extremely
life threatening. And life shortening! And yet so easily avoided, with one
little tablet every day. You can buy baby Aspirin, but I used “Cardiprin” - this
is more expensive, but comes in a push-through calendar pack, which gets me to
remember to take it better than just a bottle of tablets on the breakfast table.
However, if it is your pocket you wish to look after, as well as your
cardiovascular system, then the 81 mg Baby Aspirin tablets will do the trick
(just remember to take one a day!)
Now getting back to flying, the secret to health in the air
is purely to maintain good circulation and avoid dehydration. To maintain
circulation to the lower legs you should get up and walk around the plane once
every hour. Choose an aisle seat so you can get in and out easily. The relative
dehydration is also easy to fix - drink more water, not more alcohol! So on the
hourly walk, stop at the kitchen area and ask for a drink of water. That’s it!
Simple. Have a great flight.