A pilot has issued a health warning for travellers who still choose to fly when they have a common cold or the flu.
As reported by Daily Mail, Captain Jaimes García, a pilot at Colombian airline Avianca, revealed in a TikTok video why people with a cold are at risk of something even worse than spreading germs to their fellow passengers.
According to Captain García, cold sufferers who fly are actually at risk of rupturing their eardrums.
This is because a cold can apparently aggravate ear barotrauma, or something called ‘airplane ear’, which is often brought on by a plane ascending or descending and air pressure between the middle ear and the environment changing.
Captain García explains in his TikTok video:
“If I have a cold, those Eustachian tubes [tubes within the ear that connect the middle ear to the throat] become inflamed. They can’t equalise those pressures and that’s when you feel ear pain.” Garcia said in the video.
“If it’s very severe and you’re very congested, your eardrum could even rupture. It’s very serious.” he added.
What to do if you have Barotrauma
According to Mayo Clinic, airplane ear also called ear barotrauma, barotitis media or aerotitis media, is the stress on your eardrum that occurs when the air pressure in your middle ear and the air pressure in the environment are out of balance.
Airplane ear can occur in one or both ears and common signs and symptoms include:
- Moderate discomfort or pain in your ear
- Feeling of fullness or stuffiness in your ear
- Muffled hearing or slight to moderate hearing loss
If airplane ear gets severe, however, you might notice:
- Severe pain
- Increased ear pressure
- Moderate to severe hearing loss
- Ringing in your ear
- Spinning sensation
- Bleeding from your ear
Here’s what you can do to minimize the affects of airplane ear:
- Try yawning and swallowing during ascent and descent.
- Use the Valsalva maneuver during ascent and descent. Gently blow, as if blowing your nose, while pinching your nostrils and keeping your mouth closed.
- Don’t sleep during takeoffs and landings.
- Use an over-the-counter nasal spray.
- Try filtered earplugs.
Have you ever experienced airplane ear? Let us know by leaving a comment below
