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4 Tips for Staying Healthy as an Airplane Pilot

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Flying planes for a living comes with a certain amount of risks along with the many rewards. Not only does the job itself come with some possibility of danger, but there are health concerns that could creep up on you after years of sitting for a job. This article will help you identify some of those risks and come up with ways to prevent issues before they arise.

1. Stay Hydrated
The importance of hydration to health can often seem overstated, but neglecting to hydrate properly can have severe implications for your overall health. Smaller issues like indigestion or constipation can easily happen if you're poorly hydrated while traveling, and dehydration can cause severe paranoia and anxiety in its later stages.

The altitudes reached during flights can make dehydration a bigger possibility, so it's important that you're hydrated in proportion to the flight you're taking. Staying hydrated, eating a good diet, and taking supplements that can enhance gut health, like Gundry Prebiothrive reviews, can improve your performance as a pilot enormously.

2. Get Circulating
One of the biggest risks of extended periods of sitting still is Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). Pilots are at a particular risk for this issue because their job frequently prevents them from getting up and taking breaks from their seated position during long flights. But it's important to put your health first and make sure you get up to walk the aisles every two to three hours. If you're flying a smaller plane, you can also get your circulation flowing by flexing and unflexing your feet and doing seated stretches.

To identify DVT in its early stages, it's important to get regular checkups by your doctor and let them know any symptoms you might be experiencing, such as swelling or redness in your extremities and chest pain. This is especially important if you have a family history of blood clots, as the issue can be hereditary. Try to move around during your flights and don't ignore symptoms hoping they'll go away.

3. Pack Warm Clothes
There are emergency situations every pilot is trained to prepare for, but frequently the importance of packing warm layers is overlooked. The possibility of hypothermia when flying in cold or freezing weather is very real, and should be prepared for if those are conditions you'll be finding yourself in. Pack clothing made of fibers such as wool, or something synthetic, rather than breathable and easily waterlogged materials like cotton or denim.

It's also important to understand the signs of hypothermia, both for yourself and your crew or passengers. Look for severe shaking or shivering and rapid breathing, along with elevated heart rate and blood pressure. Identifying the signs quickly will make sure you can get yourself or the person experiencing symptoms the warm clothes they need to prevent further symptoms from arising.

4. Find Ways to De-stress
While the lifestyle of a pilot can often seem glamorous and jet-setting, it's important to realize the pressure that you're under in your day to day life. The lives of your crew and passengers are in your hands, and this kind of responsibility can have a real impact on mental health over time. It's important to have effective stress management strategies in place.

Something as simple as getting eight hours of sleep at night can do wonders for managing stress. In general, it's best to have a health routine outside of your job that includes regular exercise and a balanced diet, which will prevent the snowballing of health problems as a result of stress. You may feel like once you've left the cockpit, your responsibilities have ended. But you still have a responsibility to yourself to stay healthy and prepared for the next flight.

Being a good pilot doesn't just mean being good at flying planes. It also means being aware of the possibilities during flight, and being physically and mentally prepared to handle anything that could happen.

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