Are you at risk for an inflight blood clot? Do you know how to help prevent one?

[Bluebear]

12:01PM Tuesday September 25, 2007

WASHINGTON - Researchers say they have nailed down the absolute risk of getting a blood clot while sitting in a cramped airline seat. It is apparently one in 4656.

While flying has been linked with blood clots for more than 50 years, no one had actually calculated what the true risk was - although airlines now offer in-flight exercise plans to reduce the likelihood.

Frits Rosendaal of Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands and colleagues surveyed 8755 employees of international companies that collected data on their travel, including whether these travellers developed deep-vein thromboses or other types of blood clot.

They found that the risk of a thrombosis increased as people made more flights within a short time - especially long-haul flights. People aged under 30, women who used birth control pills and people who were particularly short, tall or overweight had a special risk. The rate of blood clots stayed high for two weeks after a flight, they reported in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine, available online.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10465789

In-flight wellbeing tips from Air New Zealand:

http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/travelinfo/travelsupport/inflight_wellbeing.htm#inflightexercises

[Mz Pip]

1. In flight exercise

My friend got seriously chewed out by a flight attendant for walking up and down the aisle on a cross country flight. She apparently got too close to the cock pit door even though she was more than 10 feet back. She's also in her 50s and only about 5'3" but getting within a certain distance from the cock pit posed a security threat.

I'd never heard of such a thing. IT's not like she was storming the cock pit or acting crazy. She was just trying to prevent a clot as she had had one before.

So take that as a warning. Get some exercise, but do it in the back of the plane.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[AndyTiedye]

3. You Have to Get Right Next to the Cockpit Door to Enter the Lavatory if You're in First Class

[AndyTiedye]

2. Hyperactivity is a Built-in Defense Against Deep-Vein Thrombosis

Perhaps there is a reason why some of us simply can't sit still.

SITTING STILL IS BAD FOR YOU!

Our bodies were meant to MOVE!

[pnwmom]

4. The risk is significantly higher than that

for the approximately 20% of the population that has a genetic condition predisposing them to a blood clot -- and most people only learn of these common conditions AFTER they have a blood clot.

It is also higher for people without genetic conditions but who have other medical conditions that raise their risk of clots.

[NotGivingUp]

5. Here's one they never talk about: blood clot risk for workers who are stuck in a chair all day.

Computer use linked to blood clots

People who sit for hours in front of a computer may be at risk of developing blood clots in their legs, a study suggests. The condition has been associated with long-haul air travel, where it has been dubbed 'economy class syndrome', but a paper published in the New Zealand Medical Journal suggests sitting still for long periods at a computer could also cause deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The researchers, led by Professor Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, have proposed the acronym ‘SIT’ - seated immobility thromboembolism - to cover all forms of seated immobility associated with DVT. But they caution that the link between sitting still and developing a DVT in the five case studies investigated could be coincidental. Further research is planned. The subjects spent eight to 15 hours a day sitting for work and recreation and included a computer worker, graphic designer and a chef, who spent much of his free time at a computer. The subjects reported sitting for between three to six hours without getting up. 'The likelihood of a young adult without underlying risk factors developing a DVT or pulmonary embolism would be considered to be extremely low, suggesting the importance of immobility as a provoking factor in these subjects,' the researchers said. Professor Beasley first reported the possible link two years ago (Risks 91).

* Richard Beasley, Patricia Heuser, Nigel Raymond. SIT (seated immobility thromboembolism) syndrome: a 21st century lifestyle hazard, Journal of the New Zealand Medical Association, Vol 118 No 1212, 1 April 2005 . Worksafe Reps.

http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/tuc-9652-f0.cfm#o5

[SheilaT]

6. Well obviously

you should fly first class.

What? You can't afford it? Oh. Never mind.