Eh?… it’s earwax
Everyone has it but you may not realize that it is important to healthy ears. While ear infections more often bother children, adults can also be at increased risk especially if they do not take care of their ears. Next month we’ll look at how the ear and earwax function along with some common ear problems.
When you think of the health risks involved in travelling, the first dangers that come to mind may be exotic infections and bug bites. But it can be the getting there that may cause you the most problems, especially if you are at risk for deep vein thrombosis, or DVT.
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Your deep veins are the ones deep within your body, specifically the femoral veins which are inside your legs and drain blood from your lower extremities back to your heart for circulation.
The problem comes from sitting in those cramped airplane seats. The blood in your legs can pool, and your risk for blood clots (i. e. thrombosis) can increase.
If you have any conditions that may result in blood vessel wall damage, or if you have any tendencies for blood clotting, your risk is even greater.
An embolism is a blood clot that breaks free from a vessel wall and travels through your circulation. This embolism can become stuck in smaller vessels, such as those in your lungs, in this case creating a pulmonary embolism. You certainly want to avoid this result!
Long-haul flights, which are usually considered to be trips of three hours or more, present the greatest risk for DVT. That’s because the longer you sit, the more your blood can pool in your legs.
Your risk can be compounded by other factors, such as being taller or overweight, since such factors mean that your fit into your seat is even tighter. Other risks factors seem to include being older than 40 years, having a family history of clotting problems, recent surgery (especially knee or hip replacement) or having medical conditions including heart failure, lung disease, cancer or even a recent infection.
Women seem to experience DVT more often. This may because pregnancy can increase the risk for blood clotting, as can hormones such as those in birth control pills.
Smoking can reduce circulation and increase your risk for DVT, as can the consumption of alcohol or caffeine, both of which may result in dehydration.
Your best defence against DVT is to keep your blood circulating. Get up and walk around the airplane cabin. Do leg and ankle exercises. Flex your calf muscles.
Wearing compression stockings can help prevent pooling, and wearing loose-fitting clothes will help ensure blood flow.
The symptoms of DVT include pain or tenderness, discolouration or redness, and warmth of the legs or ankles.
It’s not clear exactly how many people get DVT after air travel. One estimate places the occurrence at one in 5,000 airplane passengers. Many people don’t even know they are affected. Rather, they attribute their symptoms to the flight itself and luckily they do not experience embolism formation.
If you have been affected by DVT or even are being treated for it, you may be familiar with anticoagulants. These are the drugs such as heparin and warfarin that prevent blood clotting. Heparin is an injectable anticoagulant and is commonly used after surgeries such as hip or knee replacement. Warfarin is an oral tablet and is used for longer term control of blood clotting. When you take warfarin, you need regular lab tests of your blood clotting and your dose can change depending upon those lab test results.
Warfarin is one of the group of substances known as coumarins which are used for rodent poisoning. These rodentcides act in the same way that warfarin does, that is by blocking the body’s use of vitamin K, but they also cause damage to rodents’ small blood vessels. Over one to two weeks, the rat hemorrhages and dies.
The coumarin group was first noticed in 1924 as the result of cattle who hemorrhaged when they ate red clover. By the late 1950s, the group had been identified along with its therapeutic effects as an anticoagulant. Today, warfarin is synthetically produced.
Whenever you travel, know your risk factors for DVT and do your leg exercises. You want to enjoy your trip, not come home with a blood clot.
Marie Berry is a lawyer/pharmacist interested in health care and education
