Home
Newsletter
Events
Blogs
Reports
Graphics
RSS
About Us
Support
Write for Us
Media Info
Advertising Info
Deep Vein Thrombosis

Long Duration Flights Triple Risk of Blood Clots (DVT)

Saturday, April 19, 2008 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: Deep Vein Thrombosis, health news, Natural News


Most Viewed Articles
https://www.naturalnews.com/023060_risk_blood_clots.html
Delicious
diaspora
Print
Email
Share

(NewsTarget) The risk of developing potentially fatal blood clots in the legs, known as deep vein thrombosis, roughly triples on a flight that lasts longer than four hours, according to a report commissioned by the World Health Organization and published in the journal PLoS Medicine.

Deep vein thrombosis may be harmless and will often disappear without symptoms, but in some cases the blood clots come free from blood vessels in the legs and eventually lodge in the brain, heart or lungs, causing problems ranging from breathlessness and chest pain to heart attack, stroke or death.

Researchers examined the travel records of 8755 people who frequently traveled as part of their work for large companies or organizations within a 4.4-year period. They also questioned the participants about various potential risk factors, as well as occurrences of deep vein thrombosis.

The greatest risk factor was taking a long-haul flight, with 22 of the 53 observance cases occurring within eight weeks of such a trip. The researchers estimated that one blood clot occurs for every 4656 long-haul flights taken, a rate three times higher than that for shorter flights.

Equally risky was being on a birth control pill, but even women who were not on the pill are still twice as likely as men to develop deep vein thrombosis. Overweight passengers likewise had twice the risk, while people taller than six feet were 2.5 times more likely to develop blood clots than those shorter than five feet 5 inches.

Nevertheless, lead researcher Frits Rosendaal said the risks of deep vein thrombosis are not severe enough that long-haul passengers should feel the need to take blood-thinning medications.

"The results of our study do not justify the use of potentially dangerous prophylaxis [treatment to prevent disease] such as anticoagulant therapy for all long haul air travelers, since this may do more harm than good," he said.

Instead, doctors recommend standing, walking and stretching frequently during a flight, drinking lots of water, and wearing compression socks if you are in a particularly high-risk group.

Receive Our Free Email Newsletter

Get independent news alerts on natural cures, food lab tests, cannabis medicine, science, robotics, drones, privacy and more.


comments powered by Disqus



Natural News Wire (Sponsored Content)

Science.News
Science News & Studies
Medicine.News
Medicine News and Information
Food.News
Food News & Studies
Health.News
Health News & Studies
Herbs.News
Herbs News & Information
Pollution.News
Pollution News & Studies
Cancer.News
Cancer News & Studies
Climate.News
Climate News & Studies
Survival.News
Survival News & Information
Gear.News
Gear News & Information
Glitch.News
News covering technology, stocks, hackers, and more