Why air travel can be so hard on the body

In-flight emergencies have become remarkably common. The Conversation reports that today, roughly one in every two hundred twelve flights experiences a medical emergency — more than double the rate from a decade ago. The reason? Aircraft cabins are pressurized to eight thousand feet, slashing available oxygen from twenty-one percent at sea level to just fifteen percent in the air. Your body compensates by increasing heart rate and breathing, but anyone with heart or lung disease faces real risk. Layer on severe cabin dehydration — passengers lose up to three hundred sixty milliliters an hour — and the consequences multiply. Fainting, caused by blood pooling when you stand, accounts for at least one in three emergencies. Far rarer but far more serious are cardiac events, which have poorer outcomes at altitude due to limited medical equipment and staff. The takeaway: stay hydrated, move around every couple of hours, and know that flying asks more of your body than you might realize.

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