Spending long hours sealed in a pressurized aluminum tube hurtling through space week after week is bound to take its toll on the human body. So we checked with Dr. Lawrence Steinkraus, chief of the aviation/aerospace medicine section at the Mayo Clinic on some common medical issues that frequent fliers need to look out for.
Cold and Flu: The symphony of coughs and sneezes on long flights can leave the sensation of being sealed inside a plague ship. But Steinkraus says that the air quality in the average commercial airliner is actually pretty good.
