Having a meal and a soft drink before boarding a plane may be a lifesaver, says a small study out Wednesday. Medical emergencies occur once on every 800 to 1,900 flights, authorities say. More than half of those high-altitude crises involve fainting spells and heart attacks, says Makoto Matsumura of the Saitama Medical School in Japan. Matsumura says that eating and drinking increases the heart's blood output, sustaining the flow of oxygen to the brain and heart. Older people and those with circulatory ailments are most prone to trouble.
Hunger is a risk factor for an in-flight emergency.
Doctors who are on the plane often are summoned to deal with such emergencies, says AHA President Rose Marie Robertson of Vanderbilt University. I had a patient with almost exactly that problem a couple of weeks ago on a flight back from Tokyo. They called for a doctor when a woman passed out in her seat. We get a lot of calls like that. Smelling salts, drinking fluids and lying down were all the medical care the woman needed, Robertson says, noting that dry airline air can quickly worsen dehydration if people don't eat or drink.