Yeah, blogging’s light. I’m busy with the work I’m doing out in LA, plus I’m coming down with a cold, which often happens when I travel. As long as I hermit up at home I can go months without getting sick, but exposure to all of the exotic bugs in airplanes and with new people tends to get to me.
4 thoughts on “Sniffle”
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Probably more from lack of sleep than from traveling on an airplane, really. I rarely get sick when I fly, but I also sleep on planes, and usually only fly for vacation, so I’m generally well-rested, too.
Based on your stories about your travels so far, I would say that “getting a lot of sleep” isn’t really happening, nor is it necessarily possible.
It’s a dirty little secret of the airlines that they save a relatively small amount of money (and/or fuel) by recirculating more of the cabin air than they are supposed to, in order to cut down on the expense of heating and humidifying the air coming in. This leads to more circulating micro-organisms and also to the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth and lungs being more susceptible to invasion by said bugs.
I also believe that there is a separate air feed to the cockpit, in order to avoid the highly-paid cockpit crew getting sick.
Also notable is that planes with engines near a service interval have a fair amount of engine oil additives and hydraulic fluid – none of which are exactly good for the health – in the air. Ozone – which is supposed to be filtered out but often isn’t – is also sometimes a problem.
All this comprises yet another reason why high-speed maglev deserves more investment than it’s getting.
I’m going to disagree with the exotic chemicals theory, and somewhat with the not enough sleep theory — lack of sleep tends to screw up your mind, but as long as you get enough rest your body tends to do OK, inasmuch as the difference between sleep and rest (inactivity) is all in the mind, so to speak — the lack of consciousness.
What I would finger is, yes, your fellow travelers, exposing you to all kinds of novel bugs, and the often severe dehydration that comes from breathing the equivalent of mountain air — very, very dry! — for many hours, and not drinking enough fluids, both because they’re not readily available and because the trouble of…er….disposing of the byproduct is significant.
At an altitude equivalent (in humidity) to what you breathe on an airplane, say 12 to 15 thousand feet, it would be reasonable to drink two quarts of water over an eight-hour day. I know no one who even attempts that over an eight-hour flight. So, most people end up dehydrated, which not only reduces your resistance to viral attack, it especially reduces the resistance of mucosal tissues, e.g. in your nose, to viral attack.
Next time, try really stocking up on water before you go, e.g. to the point where you’re pissing every 90 minutes the day before, take along a quart (for transcontinental flights) and drink it down, hopefully scoring the aisle seat so you can visit the loo as required, and maybe take 500 mg of Vitamin C the night before, too. Not sure if that’s worth it to you, but it is to me — I really hate colds.
Other than that, well, at least you may be warding off autoimmune diseases, including diabetes and arthritis maybe. The hygiene thesis asserts that the more beatable challenges you give your immune system the less likely it is to turn on you.
All good ideas Carl. Just one problem; how are you going to get a quart bottle of water onto the plane? I believe airline security may have something to say about that.