The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
The Concierge Doc Podcast is hosted by Dr Jason Littleton, M.D., where he features medical content to make smart lifestyle choices for optimal health, wellness, energy, youthfulness, longevity, balance, and happiness.
The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
Why Are You Tired After Flying
But understanding the problem is only half the battle. We also equip you with powerful strategies to keep hydrated and energized during flights. Discover the critical role hydration plays in maintaining your energy, and learn why water and electrolyte solutions should be your in-flight companions over caffeine or alcohol. We offer practical tips to mitigate the discomfort of in-flight vibrations and manage ear pressure changes. Plus, find out how movement and thoughtful meal planning can greatly enhance your flying experience. Tune in to transform your air travel from exhausting to invigorating.
Visit Dr Jason Littleton's website: https://www.jasonmd.com/
Follow Dr Jason Littleton on Instagram and Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/therealdoctorjason/
Watch Dr Jason Littleton on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@therealdoctorjason3340
Disclaimer:
Access to the Information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and health care topics (the “Information”). Nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The Information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The Information should not be considered complete and not exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor.
Hey friends, welcome to the Concierge Doc podcast. I'm your host, ceo and founder of Littleton Concierge Medicine, dr Jason Littleton. Welcome to the podcast. Really excited today because really talking about a topic that's dear to my heart why are you tired after flying and what you can do about it? After flying and what you can do about it. I fly a lot, I travel a lot, whether it's to meetings, vacations, business, and I realized after all the flying, sometimes I just feel drained. It takes like 24 hours to come back. But why is that? A lot of people want to know and so we're going to discuss that today on the Concierge Doc Podcast. Let's go Before we get going. I want to read my disclaimer to make my compliance team happy.
Speaker 1:Access to the information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and healthcare topics. The information nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The information should not be considered complete and exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor. I say that every time you wanna make an appointment with your primary care doctor or, better yet, come see me at Littleton Concierge Medicine. I'd love to see you. I'd love to see you. I'd love to hear your story so that you can have accurate diagnosis and treatment and a plan tailored specifically to you. That's what it's all about.
Speaker 1:All right, let's get going, let's jump into this. So why are you tired? Why are we tired after we fly and why does it take some time to rebound after flying, so that you can feel energized again and get back to your routine? Well, I'm going to talk to you about seven reasons why this is. I'm going to give you seven solutions, okay, so that you can just not miss a beat and feel energized. So let's talk about this.
Speaker 1:So when we're flying, when we're traveling, there's a lot of different factors. First, there's just the stress of air travel. Air travel can be pretty stressful. You have to think about long lines, going through security, packing, lugging your luggage around. All that takes energy and it's out of your regular routine that you normally do. That stress, that extra effort can cause a person to feel tired and really just the mental effort that comes into planning, thinking ahead, putting your suitcase together, getting your travel plans together. That's another reason why people can feel tired, and it's something that you don't routinely do. It's something that adds a degree of stress on your body and mental fatigue. So that's one of the reasons. Another reason is when we think about the dynamics of flying.
Speaker 1:You know, again, you're in the air at 35,000 feet. Now I understand, when you're in an airplane, the cabins pressurize, but they're only pressurizing it to basically an effectiveness, or where you're on top of a mountain, or maybe 8,000 feet. So if you're at 35,000 feet, the airline is pressurizing the cabin to an effective pressure that makes you or puts you at about 8,000 feet. That makes you or puts you at about 8,000 feet. Now, when you're flying, there's circulated air, but half the air is coming from the outside air and that outside air has less oxygen in it because you're at a higher altitude. At higher altitude, less oxygen means that your body's breathing in less oxygen. Oxygen is required for cellular energy. So if you're getting less oxygen that you're breathing in, you're going to have less energy and that's one of the reasons why people feel tired. But we know that to be true because if you've ever been skiing which is like my favorite sport, by the way. When you're skiing, when you're skiing out West and you're at a high elevation, like Colorado, I mean, the base level is already 5,000. Then when you get to the zenith of the mountain, you're probably up another three, 4,000. And so you're at eight, 9,000 feet above sea level and the air pressure is just different. You know it takes more work, you get tired faster. It takes more work to ski, more work to walk, more work to do anything exertional, because you're breathing less oxygen. And so that's another reason why people feel tired and why it's important to factor that in. But not just that.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about another aspect of flying humidity. The humidity is different. So when you're flying, the humidity can be as low as one to two percent. Now, humidity is basically water molecules in the air. There's less of them. So when you're at sea level, you could potentially be at a humidity of 40 to 50%. That's a big adjustment, that's a big change. That change alone is something that your body has to adjust to and that takes energy.
Speaker 1:But let's think about it when you're flying and you're at a humidity of 1% to 2% at 35,000 feet, basically that air is sucking water from your body into the environment. So you're losing air. So there's a higher chance of being dehydrated. Look at sea level. We know that approximately 75% of Americans are already chronically dehydrated. And then you get in an airplane and you're at 35,000 feet and you're at a low humidity level. You're losing water to the air. So that's another reason why people can feel tired.
Speaker 1:Let's go to our next reason. So problem number four, when it comes to losing energy, when you're flying, it's really just the motion of the plane, the turbines itself. You're not used to that. The turbines are turning and it puts a vibrational type of uh rhythm that your muscles feel, your connective tissues feel, your bones feel, and that alone can cause you to feel tired and you might not realize it, you might not notice it, but that vibration is sucking energy from you as well. Not just that the noise, that noise effect also can affect your energy. So that's another reason why people can you know, feel tired.
Speaker 1:Next reason is you know the pressure that your ears feel. Your ears can feel a pressure. That's why you, they try to adjust and you feel that air popping. And you know your inner ear. You know your inner ear helps you to have a sense of balance and position, along with seeing and feeling. Your inner ear plays a big part in that, and you know your ears will try to adjust. When you pop your ears they're trying to adjust, but if a person is under the weather, they have a respiratory infection and there's inflammation in their inner ear canal. That adjustment may not as happen as well, and so people can get a sense of displacement or even vertigo when they're flying, and that can drain the person of energy as well. So that's another reason.
Speaker 1:Dietary changes and I think that's big Dietary changes when we're flying, when we're doing air travel, a lot of times the hustle and bustle of trying to get to the airport, getting on a plane, the stress of that sometimes can cause people to skip meals, not to eat in a balanced way that they're normally used to eating. Another thing that can happen is that we're more prone to get grabbing go foods and to even eat more fast food when we're traveling, and that's not the best either. Foods that have, you know, higher sugar content, processed materials in them, and these things can rob our energy as well, and so that's another thing that we have to look at when we're flying. Another reason that adds to why we feel tired, why we feel fatigue after flying, during flying, and then there's the time zone change. You know, time zone alone can cause someone to feel jet lag and to feel tired. So these are seven reasons why you know, people can feel tired after flying and why we can feel like we need a whole day just to recover. We need a vacation from the vacation, almost, and so I wanted to point out these things so we realize what we're up against.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about some solutions. How can we have a smoother trip? How can we feel energized after our trip? How can we recover faster? Well, let's go through it. So I'm going to go through each point that we just talked about and I'm going to talk about how we can actually remedy some of these concerns.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about again the stress of air travel. When we about, again, the stress of air travel, when we talk about the stress of air travel, we talked about, how you know, the hustle and bustle, uh, lacking your luggage. So one of the things we want to do is we want to think ahead. We want to think ahead and we want to think about what can we do to mitigate just the stress. Maybe, that is know getting TSA pre-check, getting clear, streamline that whole security process.
Speaker 1:Another thing is you know packing light, packing in advance, not packing last minute, getting sleep before you leave for your trip. That's so important. Sometimes, if you're a last minute packer, you're not getting sleep before you run to the airport and that's just going to rob you of energy. You're going to feel tired and then when you get on that plane you might get a couple hours of sleep. But even still, it's just a different environment and now you're dealing with the air pressure, the humidity and all these other things. So thinking ahead, sleeping ahead, packing light can help you. Getting through security can make a difference faster. Like I said, tsa pre-check or getting clear I have those things and it can make the stress or air trouble a lot easier. When we talk about the air pressure, we've talked about how the air pressure can affect your body. Again, when you're flying at 35,000 feet, your body Again, when you're flying at 35,000 feet, it's like putting you at an effective level of 8,000 feet.
Speaker 1:And what I know from skiing and also being a physician is you want to increase your exercise endurance. When I'm on top of a ski mountain, one of the things that I fight off fatigue with is being conditioned, being in shape, having an exercise routine, being able to do less with more meaning, because there's less oxygen in that environment. Having my lungs and my heart conditioned so that I can do less with more, all right. Or in other words, I can do more with less because the oxygen level is lower. So having my lungs conditioned, being able to just breathe effectively, have higher endurance, that's what you want to do. So having an exercise routine is something that you want to have a habit of doing anyway. And then, when we talk about the humidity, we talk about how the humidity can drain you of energy by robbing you of your bodily water. So one of the things that you want to do is stay hydrated.
Speaker 1:Okay, I recommend drinking eight ounces of water for every hour you're in the air, yeah, so if you have. Now there's some exceptions to this. If you have congestive heart failure or renal disease, then you want to talk to your doctor, you want to talk to myself about how that adjustment is going to take place in those situations, because you're going to want to drink less water, because you don't want to develop fluid overload by drinking too much. But in normal circumstances, eight ounces of water per every hour you're in the air would be important and, like I said, in the cases of congestive heart failure or renal disease or another chronic medical condition, you wanna talk to your doctor about that or you wanna get with me so we can properly assess that and tell you how much water you actually wanna drink. But in a normal condition, hydrating, with everything in balance your kidneys, your heart and being in good health eight ounces of water for every hour you're in the air.
Speaker 1:One of the things I like to do is drink electrolyte solutions. Element is my favorite drink that I like to drink and it's something that allows me to stay hydrated. You know, when I'm flying, during the flight, after the flight, every day, just circumstances, life. You know, I love it because it doesn't have, you know, any sugar. There's no caffeine and if you heard any of my previous podcasts, I stopped. My testimony is that I stopped drinking caffeine and I'm really on, you know, um. You know, whole foods, natural um supplements and foods to stay energized instead of, you know, having caffeine, which is a diuretic, rob me of the fluid in my body.
Speaker 1:Alcohol, caffeine they act as a diuretic and they pull water out of you. So if you're flying at 35,000 feet and you're drinking caffeine or you're drinking alcohol, that's pulling even more water from you, and what that does is it makes your mucous membranes in your nose, your mouth, your eyes more dry. It actually makes them more sticky for microbes. That's why people actually can get sick from flying. Well, they're not getting sick from flying, but when you're around other people crunched up in this tube that's in the air, people who may be sick, people who may have viruses, you're breathing in some of that air. Well, when you're dehydrated, and then, on top of that, if you're drinking things like caffeinated or alcohol solutions robbing you of more water, you have a higher chance of getting sick. Microbes will stick to those mucous membranes and this is something that robs you of energy. Illness robs you of energy. People who are in perfect health, who are doing well, who are exercising, eating appropriately, they're gonna have energy. It makes a huge difference.
Speaker 1:But what's the takeaway from this point? You wanna stay hydrated? I recommend electrolyte solutions. If you're not drinking electrolyte solutions, drink water. In a normal circumstance, eight ounces per every hour in the air. Again, this is one of the reasons why I just like to have like advanced hydration. I like these new element drinks and take a sip right now. They're so good in so many different flavors. I love an easy way to stay hydrated and this, this particular brand, um, it's, it's their sparkling water uh version and I love that a lot. So, uh, remember that. You know you want to stay hydrated in the air.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about the other point. We talked about the motion of the turbines. You know there's not a lot you can do about that because you're flying you want to keep those turbines moving. But one of the things that you can do is some airlines the seats aren't very cushioned. It's really a hard surface, so you're going to feel the vibration more. Versus other airlines they're going to have more cushioning. If you are on airlines that has a first class, they usually have a wider seat, the seats are usually more cushioned. That can make a difference. You can bring a cushion to make a difference, to kind of buffer the vibrations that you feel. But it is kind of hard to get away from the vibrations of the turbines, the motion of the plane.
Speaker 1:But those are some of the things that you can do and make sure you're getting up, up and walking, because when you're in a seated position for two hours or more. You know, normally unless you're used to that because of your occupation uh, normally we're, we're, we're, we're, dynamic, we're moving around, and when it's safe to move around a plane, you want to see. You know, when the seatbelt sign is off, you want to just stretch your legs, maybe walk to the bathroom so that you can, you know, just keep that blood flowing and, just, you know, get out of that static position that you're in for the time being. While you're in the air, let's talk about, you know, you can take a decongestant, you can pop your ears. These things can help with the pressure changes, that body adjustment that your ears are making when you're flying. That's something that can make a difference.
Speaker 1:As far as dietary changes, that is the other thing that we were talking about as a problem that can rob you of energy just because your diet can change when you're on the go. You want to think ahead. You want to think ahead. You want to plan what you're eating. You want to make sure that you bring low sugar items. You want to make sure that you avoid fast foods, grab and go. You want to, like my other point that we talked about, you want to bring water with you or an electrolyte solution just like this, like the Element, and you just want to think through your schedule. You want to make sure that you are eating healthy. Again, low sugar, no fast food. Think ahead and definitely eat when you're rushing to the airport, when you're on the go.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we don't eat and that's a problem. When we don't eat, we end up eating more later. When we don't eat now, the temptation to grab something sugary later because your blood sugar got low, it's a higher temptation at this point and now that's going to rob you of energy because you're putting more sugar into your body when normally you're not used to eating that. So that's something that you want to think about. Okay, make sure that you're not skipping meals. Keep your blood sugar even killed. You know, my favorite snack that I talk about a lot are, like you know, blueberries and almonds. If you can bring some dried blueberries, some almonds, pack some blueberries with you, take the almonds with you. You could have that throughout the day to keep your blood sugar even keeled, to keep you energized, to keep you feeling well.
Speaker 1:And then let's talk about the time zone changes. You know that was one of the problems that I talked to you about that can rob your energy. If you're going to a place that's five hours ahead of you, well, the locals are going to sleep when you're feeling up and ready to go and do some sightseeing tours. So what you might want to do on that first day is adjust by going to sleep when the locals go to sleep so that you can adjust to the time zone. Conversely, if you're going somewhere where they're five hours behind, you wanna make sure that you get sleep before your trip so you can stay up a little bit longer and go to sleep when the locals go to sleep, once again, so that you can make that adjustment.
Speaker 1:One of the things I just wanna circle back to and I talked about this when I talked about the humidity and being at 35,000 feet. I just want to circle back to and I talked about this when I talked about the humidity, and you know being at 35,000 feet and you know the environment just taking water away from your body, drying your mucus membranes, making the mucus membranes stickier, so that that's the situation where microbes can effectively stick you know the mucous membranes, your nose, and potentially get you sick One of the things you want to do and I want to add this as a bonus is you can bring a saline nasal solution to keep them nice and moist. That way, you can fight against the dry mucous membranes from the humidity. You could also bring some petroleum jelly and put this at the tips of your nose so that those areas can stay moist. Make sure you also take some Vaseline for your lips to keep those mucous membranes moist and not dry. Bring some eye drops. These are some of the things, along with hydrating, that can make a huge difference and make your mucous membranes, just to keep them moist and hydrated, and you can keep the water in your body. These are things that can make a difference when you're traveling.
Speaker 1:If you're up and on the go, like I am all the time, you want to use these tips. You want to use these tips so that you could just feel well, stay energized and rebound faster. You know people like myself. We don't have an extra day to waste so that we can recover. We need to recover and keep moving. When we're doing business, when we're traveling, when we're being effective, we don't have a time to be sick or time to be down. So these are things that I have found that make a difference. You can use them too, pass them along by sharing this podcast and subscribing to it and just being a part of my Instagram, facebook, youtube channel, and also soon we're going to be on TikTok. So, you know, stay informed. You know, sign up for the newsletter at jasonmdcom and, even better yet, come and become a patient at Littleton Concierge Medicine. I can't wait to see you and hear your story. Well, that's all for this week. I've enjoyed this time with you. I can't wait to hear from you soon. Drop a comment. See you soon. Let's go.
