A pilot has issued a health warning for passengers flying with cold.
And it's not just because they could spread germs to their fellow travelers.
Captain Jaaimes García (@captatainjaaimesgarcia), a pilot at Colombian airline Avianca, explains in a video that is shared on Tiktok that cold patients run the risk of tearing their eardrums.
This is because a cold earbarotrauma – or 'aircraft ear' can worsen – that is often caused by an aircraft that rises or drops and changes air pressure between the middle ear and the environment.
As De Express reports, Captain García Ear Barotrauma describes as 'very serious' and reveals why cold patients are more at risk.
He tells his 150,000 Tiktok followers: 'When I have a cold, those Eustachian tubes [tubes within the ear that connect the middle ear to the throat] be inflamed. They cannot make that pressure right and that is when you feel earache.
'If it is very serious and you are very overloaded, your eardrum can even tear. It is very serious. '
Although a care for passengers, given their longer flight hours, pilots are at risk.
Captain Garcia says: “A passenger who flies with congestion can experience considerable discomfort, but we pilots who make a maximum of five or six trips daily run a greater risk if we are not in an optimal state.”
According to Heathline, 'frequent cases'' '' 'further complications' can cause, such as nose bleeds and moderate to serious hearing loss.
A pilot has issued a health warning for passengers flying with cold. Captain Jaaimes García, a pilot at Colombian airline Avianca, explains in a video that is shared on Tiktok that cold patients run the risk of tearing their eardrums (file image)
And following Captain Garcia, Healthline emphasizes that “people with allergies, colds or active infections are more likely to experience earbarotrauma.”
Most cases of barotrauma 'cure without medical intervention', explains Healthline, whereby the site advises that flyers relieve the effects of air pressure changes by practicing yaws, chewing gum, breathing exercises and taking decongestants.
In more serious cases, however, a doctor may be obliged to prescribe a steroid or antibiotic, while a torn eardrum may require surgery.
The NHS that is suitable for the travel website Outlines Sketches other flying health problems.
One is dehydration because the 'circulating air in aircraft cabins is very dry and can influence your skin, lips, nose and eyes'.
It recommends using skin moisturizers and lip balms and drinking a lot of clear liquids during your flight.
A cold can make earbarotrauma or 'airplane ear' worse
The 'tight conditions' and 'long periods of being less active on a flight' can also increase your risk to 'developing a blood clot', a condition known as a deep venous thrombosis (DVT), warns the NHS.
DVTs usually form in the legs and can be 'possible life -threatening' if 'a part of the clot breaks down and travels to the lungs', causing a pulmonary embolism.
Passengers must try to move as much as possible and perform veal muscle exercises to lower their risk.
Travelers can also suffer from movement disease if there is 'serious turbulence' during their flight or jet lag to travel over several time zones, the NHS warns.
