Airline alcohol consumption poses serious health risks: Study reveals

Travellers often seek comfort in alcoholic beverages during aeroplane trips. Some do it to manage their fear, others for social reasons or to pass the time. However, it turns out that consuming alcohol during a flight is a horrible idea.

Scientists have published the results of studies demonstrating that combining alcohol with naps during a flight is the worst thing you can do for your health. According to researchers from the Institute of Aviation Medicine in Germany, this is related to the reduced air pressure in the cabin.

"The on board consumption of alcohol is an underestimated health risk that could be easily avoided. It may be beneficial to consider altering regulations to restrict the access to alcoholic beverages on board aeroplanes," the researchers stated in an article published in Thorax.

Researchers point out that heart and circulatory system problems are the cause of 7% of sudden medical cases during flights, and cardiac arrest accounts for 58% of all in-flight interventions.

Being in a hypobaric environment (with low air pressure) causes a decrease in oxygen levels in the blood and an increase in heart rate. Airline passengers with heart problems are at increased risk of symptom exacerbation due to the reduced cabin pressure at cruising altitude, which intensifies during sleep.

The authors of the text are certain that alcohol consumed during a flight has similar effects. To verify this, they examined 48 people aged 18 to 40. They discovered that the combination of alcohol and low oxygen levels at high altitudes worsens sleep quality and leads to prolonged low oxygen levels in the blood.

"Together these results indicate that, even in young and healthy individuals, the combination of alcohol intake with sleeping under hypobaric conditions poses a considerable strain on the cardiac system and might lead to exacerbation of symptoms in patients with cardiac or pulmonary diseases".