Inside airplanes, a few things change |
When moving to altitude, there are reductions in temperature, oxygen pressure and humidity. It is important to point out that significant changes occur beyond the critical height of 2500 meters (8200 feet) above sea level. Airplanes maintain cabin pressure at the level of 2000 meters and temperature is controlled with air conditionning but humidity and oxygen pressure are not.
So, what happens is that the air gets very dry and lacks some oxygen. The lack of oxygen does not have consequences on healthy people but the dryness of the air is a totally different matter. Everytime, we breath in and out we expell water and in a very dry environment, that means we dehydrate. What is the consequence? On the short run, nothing happens, but for people who live a good part of their lives on airplanes, that turns out to be a menace for kidney stone formation. AS A RESULT, I HAVE SEEN A FEW CREW MEMBERS WITH THIS PROBLEM.
How can we deal with this issue? Very simple: drink water.
But how much? A very simple way to do this properly is to have one glass of water for each hour of flight. You would rather not do this? No problem: you can have a very good idea of your hydration status by the colour of your urine. Everytime, it turns out to be rather yellow, you are dehydrated. On the other hand, that means that urine has to have a very pale colour at all times if you wish to avoid the extremely unpleasant adventure of having a kidney stone spasm.
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, YOU HAVE TO KNOW THAT KIDNEY STONES CAN BE PRODUCED IN 24 HOURS.
A good piece of advice it to have an abdominal ultrasound every year: it will detect "silent" stones that have not yet produced symptoms.
So, what happens is that the air gets very dry and lacks some oxygen. The lack of oxygen does not have consequences on healthy people but the dryness of the air is a totally different matter. Everytime, we breath in and out we expell water and in a very dry environment, that means we dehydrate. What is the consequence? On the short run, nothing happens, but for people who live a good part of their lives on airplanes, that turns out to be a menace for kidney stone formation. AS A RESULT, I HAVE SEEN A FEW CREW MEMBERS WITH THIS PROBLEM.
How can we deal with this issue? Very simple: drink water.
But how much? A very simple way to do this properly is to have one glass of water for each hour of flight. You would rather not do this? No problem: you can have a very good idea of your hydration status by the colour of your urine. Everytime, it turns out to be rather yellow, you are dehydrated. On the other hand, that means that urine has to have a very pale colour at all times if you wish to avoid the extremely unpleasant adventure of having a kidney stone spasm.
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, YOU HAVE TO KNOW THAT KIDNEY STONES CAN BE PRODUCED IN 24 HOURS.
A good piece of advice it to have an abdominal ultrasound every year: it will detect "silent" stones that have not yet produced symptoms.
