Email this article to a friend

Printable Version

Articles Related to This Article: • Blaming dietary sodium for high blood pressure is too simplistic; the real problem may be mineral deficiencies • American Diabetes Association peddling nutritional nonsense while accepting money from manufacturer of candy and sodas • Potassium normalizes high blood pressure Support NaturalNews advertisers - Advertise with NaturalNews Nutrition Can Save America! FREE report by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, reveals why nutritional deficiencies are destroying America's health and economy... and how to restore America's future with real food.

(NaturalNews) 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.

Share

Get articles like this delivered to you FREE in our popular email newsletter

Related CounterThink Cartoons:

Related Articles: • Blaming dietary sodium for high blood pressure is too simplistic; the real problem may be mineral deficiencies • American Diabetes Association peddling nutritional nonsense while accepting money from manufacturer of candy and sodas • Potassium normalizes high blood pressure	Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com Email this article to a friend Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us Permalink to this article: http://www.NaturalNews.com/023060_blood_blood_clots_Deep_Vein_Thrombosis.html Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): <a href = "http://www.NaturalNews.com/023060_blood_blood_clots_Deep_Vein_Thrombosis.html">Long Duration Flights Triple Risk of Blood Clots (DVT)</a>