And this risk isn’t limited to the friendly skies: traveling for periods longer than four hours, whether you’re traveling by plane, car, bus, or train, can put you at an elevated risk for developing a blood clot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
How Do These Clots Form?
Blood clots form when the blood clumps or sticks together, often because of slowed or restricted blood flow. When you’re sitting in a confined space, whether it’s a cramped coach seat on a plane or positioning yourself around backpacks, purses, and other personal items, you limit blood flow to the legs. This can cause clots to form in the deep veins. The risk increases with the amount of time you spend in the car or on the plane.
For many people, even when a blood clot forms, it will dissolve on its own, and you may never be aware that it existed in the first place. However, once a DVT has formed, you have the risk that the clot will become dislodged from wherever it has formed in the leg, and travel through the body to the lungs, where it can block blood flow and oxygenation to the major organs, causing massive organ failure or death.
The good news, however, is that there are several easy steps that you can take to minimize your risk of developing a DVT or life-threatening PE on your next trip, whether it’s for work or play.
Know Your Risk Factors
Even for frequent travelers, the overall risk for developing a blood clot is typically small. It depends largely on how long you’ll be traveling, as well as your other risk factors. Knowing what risk factors you have will help you remain alert to any signs that a DVT has developed. It will also encourage you to take action quickly if you develop any of the symptoms, rather than dismissing them as leg cramps or becoming ill while on a vacation. The CDC outlines several risk factors that you should be aware of when traveling long distance:
- Age: Your risk of developing a blood clot increases once you’ve hit 40
- Weight: Obese and overweight people are more likely to develop blood clots than their lean counterparts
- Surgery or Trauma: If you’ve had surgery or trauma to the body within three months of traveling, you’re at an increased risk for developing a DVT
- Birth Control/Hormone Replacement Therapy: If you’re on a birth control that contains estrogen, such as the pill, or if you’re undergoing hormone replacement therapy, your risks for a blood clot are higher.
- Pregnancy/Postpartum: Changes in the body chemistry of pregnant women, as well as the strain that the uterus puts on leg veins, put pregnant women and women up to six weeks postpartum at an increased risk for developing a clot.
- Active Cancer/Recent Treatment: If you currently have cancer, or if you’ve recently undergone cancer treatment, you may be at an increased risk for DVT
- Limited Mobility: If you have limited mobility due to injury or illness, you may be at an increased risk for blood clots.
- Varicose Veins: These veins aren’t just unsightly; varicose veins may put you at an increased risk for developing a DVT
If you have any (or several) of the risk factors above, you may be at a greater risk for developing a DVT while traveling than your traveling companions. And, of course, your risk level goes up with each additional factor that you have. If you plan on traveling and you are concerned about the risk for a DVT, talk to your doctor about specific options you might have to prevent a clot while you’re on your trip.
Keep Moving
If you’re taking a long flight, train or bus ride, it helps to stand up periodically. Stretch and walk, even if it's just down the aisle or to the restroom. Standing and moving around will keep blood flowing in your legs, and will minimize the risk of blood pooling there and forming a DVT. If you’re going on a long car trip, make frequent stops to get out and stretch your legs. You should also try to shift your weight and position frequently during the trip, rather than trying to get comfortable and fall asleep.
You can also perform a number of exercises right from your seat that will lower your risk of developing a blood clot. These range from flexing your heels and toes in alternate timing to stretching the calf muscle, to pulling one knee at a time to your chest and holding for 10 seconds before alternating.
If you think you can't do this, talk to your doctor about using graduated compression stockings, which help encourage blood flow and stop blood from pooling in the lower legs during long trips.
Know The Signs -- And Act On Them
The signs of a blood clot are characteristic but often overlooked or dismissed as something else. If you develop the signs or symptoms of a blood clot and know that you have one or more risk factors, you should act on those symptoms immediately to avoid complications or death.
If you have developed a DVT, you may experience:
- Swelling and/or pain in an extremity, most often in the thigh or lower leg
- The extremity may become painful, tender, and/or hot to the touch
- The extremity or an area of it may become discolored, taking on a reddish or bluish hue that may look like a bruise
If you have developed a PE, you may experience:
- Sudden, unexplained shortness of breath
- Shooting chest pain that becomes worse when you try to take a deep breath or cough
- Feeling faint or dizzy
- Irregular (arrhythmia) or racing heartbeat
- Pain that radiates out from the torso to the shoulder, arm, neck or jaw
- Skin that becomes clammy or bluish
If you develop these symptoms, seek emergency medical attention to avoid permanent damage or death.