Name: Proven Method to Avoid Blood Clots | (risk DOUBLES when you fly!)
Uploaded: 2025-07-24T14:17:23.000Z
Duration: 4 min 57 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

A long flight puts every traveler at risk of developing blood clots since sitting for long periods of time can cause blood to pool in the veins in your legs.

These blood clots can lead to deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, which is a serious and possibly fatal medical condition where a blood clot forms in a deep vein, breaks off, and then ends up lodged in your lungs.

Some of the factors that make you more likely to form a blood clot during a flight include flight times of over four hours, pregnancy, obesity, varicose veins, a history of smoking, taking birth control pills, or even simply being over the age of 40.

In today's video, I'll be running through the easy things that you can do to prevent your risk of a blood clot on your next flight.

The most effective way to prevent blood clots as well as lower your risk of DVT is to get up and move around.

The longer that you are immobile, the higher your risk of developing a blood clot is going to be.

Stand up frequently and just walk the aisles or head to the galley area near the washrooms to do some simple stretches.

Standing calf raises or light squat motions can be particularly helpful.

This is going to stimulate your leg muscles and get your blood flowing, which in turn is going to lower the risk of blood pooling and clotting.

The second tip to prevent blood clots during a long flight is going to be to choose your seat wisely.

When choosing your seat, aim to sit in an aisle so you have full control over when you stand up and when you sit down.

This removes any barrier involved in having to ask a sleeping person next to you to stand up so you yourself can also get up.

If there are only middle seats available at the time that you go to choose your seat, aim to pick one that is in the middle row in the center of the plane.

A middle seat in the center row of seats has two exit points, so even if the guy to your right is passed out snoring, you could still ask the woman to your left if she could get up and you could get out through that side.

Stimulating your muscles and moving around should be done every 60 to 90 minutes at a minimum, but getting up every 60 to 90 minutes on an airplane is not always possible, especially if you ended up at a window seat or if there's turbulence and the seatbelt sign is illuminated.

Be prepared for these scenarios by arming yourself with some in-seat exercises to keep your circulation moving.

Simply flexing your ankles to point your feet up and down, pulling your knees into your chest one by one, and then doing some light ankle circles can go a long way.

And if you know that you are someone that could happily sit through a long flight without getting up at all, consider setting a few alarms on your phone to go off every 90 minutes to remind you to get up or at least to remind you to move around with some of those in-seat exercises.

It might seem annoying to have an alarm going off every hour and a half, especially if it's a long flight and you would like to get some sleep, but trust me, it is so worth it and it could even save your life.

Let us know down in the comments if you try to make movement a part of every flight.

Dry cabin air and high altitude will dehydrate your body faster than when you are on the ground.

Hydration is important because it reduces the viscosity of blood, making it thicker, which is going to increase your risk of blood clots.

Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water and avoid alcohol and caffeine since these are diuretics and can further dehydrate your body.

Also, be prepared by bringing your own water onto the plane.

Service on airplanes can be affected by all kinds of things.

For example, the flight attendant might be slow to pass out water due to full flights or sometimes even drink service never runs due to turbulence.

I'll always bring an empty water bottle or thermos with me to fill up at the airport water fountain before I board the flight.

Remember that you are allowed to bring as much water as you want with you onto the airplane.

It's only TSA airport security that is going to restrict the amount of liquids that you are carrying.

So, once you get through airport security, you are able to fill up as many water bottles or buy as many water bottles as you want and carry these with you onto the plane.

Another way you can prepare for your flight and reduce your risk of blood clots is to wear compression socks.

Compression socks put pressure on your calves to encourage blood circulation.

They come in all shapes and sizes and have the added benefit of keeping your legs warm as the cabin can get quite cold.

You can find some very affordable options on Amazon and I'll leave a link to the ones that I have in the description below.

While there's no guaranteed way to prevent blood clots during a flight, following these tips will absolutely reduce your risk.

I'll also leave a link in the description for some long flight comfort tips that I think you'll love and some additional information from the CDC on preventing blood clots.

My name is Megan and I would love to see you subscribe to join us back here for more travel tips and hacks next week.