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Comment by yodon | Hacker News Reader

To whomever downvoted this, DVT is absolutely a real thing and absolutely life threatening. Your heart doesn't have the pumping capacity to pump blood out of your lower legs so your body is designed to use calf muscle expansion and contraction to move the blood. If you sit idle for many hours the blood pools in your lower legs and your chance of a quite literally life threatening blood clot skyrockets. If you develop such a clot and get on anti clotting meds in time you'll probably be on them for the rest of your life. Voice of experience here. Getting up and walking around on a long flight is a really good idea. Can also happen to those who camp out in a chair without moving for 8 hour gaming or coding sessions.

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Getting up and walking around is a good idea. I also take an aspirin before flying long haul.

I grew up flying from San Diego to Singapore and learned by watching others to get up, walk around, and stretch. I recently took Southwest's 6 hour flight to Maui and the flight attendants made an announcement discouraging "aisle aerobics". I guess on their tiny single aisle 737s it causes too much congestion.

We certainly shouldn't be packing the airplane so full for longer flights. There's not even room to bounce your leg on most flights.

You can flex your leg muscles without moving your legs. I wonder if this is enough to pump your blood around and if every hour there should be an alert telling you to do this.

From: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/deep-vein-thr...

> Avoid sitting still. If you have had surgery or have been on bed rest for other reasons, try to get moving as soon as possible. If you're sitting for a while, don't cross your legs, which can hamper blood flow. If you're traveling a long distance by car, stop every hour or so and walk around.

If you're on a plane, stand or walk occasionally. If you can't do that, exercise your lower legs. Try raising and lowering your heels while keeping your toes on the floor, then raising your toes with your heels are on the floor.

I'm a doctor, but maybe not in the same country as you. I'd be surprised if doctors in your country put people on permanent anticoagulation just because of a DVT with a known trigger of a long flight.

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