When you're on a flight, getting up and walking around the cabin can be a great way to stretch your legs and offer some relief from the often cramped space of your plane seat.
However, it turns out that the simple action of getting up for a walk could actually help your health on a wider scale – by reducing your risk of DVT.
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is when a blood clot forms in a deep vein, usually in legs, blocking blood flow.
This can happen when the person has been sitting still during a long journey such as a long-haul flight, or a long journey by bus, train or car.
That's why it's so important to make sure you get up and move around the cabin during a flight (provided the seatbelts sign is off!).
Not only can this help reduce the risk of DVT, but it's good to move around and have a stretch!
Simply moving around and stretching your legs can make a big difference, and can help the blood flow.
The NHS suggests that if you're travelling for more than three hours in a flight, you should take some steps to reduce your risk of DVT.
These include:
- Wearing loose, comfortable clothes.
- Doing calf calf exercises at least every half hour. One exercise you can do is to raise your heels, keeping your toes on the floor, then bring them down 10 times. Then raise and lower your toes 10 times.
- Walk around whenever you can.
- Drink plenty of water.
Do not drink alcohol or take sleeping pills.
If you think you have an increased risk of DVT, it's also recommended that you wear flight socks or compression stockings which can help blood flow.
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