Manage Dehydration while Travelling
Air travel is a quick and easy way to get to your long-distance destinations, but traveling this way can have some health side effects. One of the most common is dehydration and its secondary effects. It leads many frequent fliers wondering why they’re so prone to dehydration and if there are any ways to ensure they stay hydrated as they travel.
What Causes Passengers to Dehydrate On Planes?
The air inside a airplane’s cabin is low-humidity, or very dry air. Depending on where you live in the world, the air humidity inside your home is typically around 30 to 60 percent. In an airplane, however, the air humidity is less than 20 percent. It’s a huge change for the body, and it’s an environment where the dehydrating toll on the body is almost immediate.
Related: 11 Ways to Prevent Dehydration while Flying
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This dry, low-humidity air dries out your skin, eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. The drying impact leads the body to dehydrate if left unchecked.
Dehydrating the body can then lead to a plethora of secondary health issues, including worsening and prolonging jet lag and increasing the risk for deep vein thrombosis blood clots. Your nose may bleed and skin may crack, which in turn increase the risk of infection from allowing an entry point for germs and bacteria.
The dry air involved in traveling by plane, especially over long and/or frequent flights, can wreck havoc on your health if you don’t take proactive steps to counterbalance its effects.
How to Prevent Air Travel Dehydration-Related Problems
The Journal of American Medical Association recently published research out of Japan that showed the best way to prevent dehydration’s effects on a flight is to drink an electrolyte drink.
The study involved giving passengers both water and electrolyte drinks to see which prevented dehydrating and lowered the risk of blood clots most efficiently. The results showed electrolyte drinks maintained the best net fluid balance and blood viscosity in the the legs.
The study may seem like common sense – drink fluids on flights. But, many air travelers don’t drink fluids because they dread bathroom lines, don’t want to pay for expensive shop drinks in the airport, and can’t get through security with their own beverage containers. So, it takes some planning to be and stay hydrated on a flight, and the best way to do it is with electrolytes.
Use an Electrolyte Powder Drink to Stay Hydrated on Your Flight
Sugar, caffeine, and alcohol drinks can fool your body into thinking its hydrated when it’s really not. All of these actually increase fluid loss through urination. Avoid them before and during your flight.
Your first step is to get hydrated beforehand with the right sources. Water is great, but an electrolyte drink is better. Did you know that salt, which is contained in electrolyte drinks, helps your body retain and absorb fluids? Fruits also have a high water content that can help you stay hydrated on long flights.
Also read: The Benefits of Using SOS Hydration
You’ll want to carry an easy and convenient source of electrolytes, such as electrolyte powder packet by SOS Hydration, with you so that you can hydrate as you wait for your flight and during your flight. You can easily carry an empty water bottle to fill onboard and at the airport’s water fountains; then, you just add your handy package of electrolyte powder.
