Flying Doesn't Have to Suck for Your Gut
Tired of feeling gassy, bloated, and irregular after every flight? Here’s our complete guide to preparing your gut for takeoff.
Humans are explorers. Our senses of curiosity, adventure, and wonder are some of our most unique and extraordinary traits—and they fuel the more than 100,000 commercial flights taking off around the globe every day.1
All that air travel allows for eye-opening experiences, but it can also herald some gut-churning ones: Yep, we’re talking gas, bloating, and irregularity. But, good news for your European getaway: There are ways to get ahead of these digestive issues. Read on to learn why you don’t need to sacrifice your gut health for the sake of your next adventure.
Why Does Flying Cause Digestive Issues?
There are a few reasons why flying can mess with the gut. For starters, being stuck in a box thousands of miles above the surface of the Earth can cause serious aviophobia (fear of flying) and even if you’re not a nervous traveler, the threat of missed connections, delays, and on-board germs can all contribute to stress and anxiety.2
These emotions aren’t just mental; they have consequences for your gut due to the gut-brain axis, the bidirectional biochemical superhighway that links the central nervous system and the GI tract.3
The gut-brain axis is seriously complex, and we’re only beginning to discover the various ways stress modulates the gut microbiome. Some of the possible mechanisms have to do with how stress increases sensitivity, reduces blood flow, and alters bacteria in the gut:
- When we get stressed, blood is redirected away from our GI tract towards the organs more directly involved in the fight-or-flight response. Preclinical research (so, not yet done on humans) suggests that over time, this can kickstart a cycle that increases inflammation and degrades the gut barrier—though it’s unclear if this happens with shorter-term stressors or just chronic ones.4,5
- Ongoing stress is known to harm immune function. This may prevent gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) from keeping out various pathogens.6,8
- Stress hormones, including norepinephrine and epinephrine, might directly modulate the amount of certain bacteria in the gut.7 For example, the gut seems to be lower in Lactobacillus (a bacterial genus that promotes gut barrier integrity) during times of stress.8,9
- Conversely, microbial byproducts in the gut seem to be able to reach the brain, disrupting certain neuropathways and causing anxiety behavior, according to preliminary research in mice.10
Travel also introduces us to new sights, new sounds—and new microbes. This begins the moment you board your flight and enter the highly trafficked airplane cabin microbiome, which may be a conduit for infectious bacteria and viruses.11 It continues when you eat new foods that throw off gut transit times, sending you straight to the plane toilet (or gazing at it anxiously).
Dry cabin air and sporadic drink service can also cause dehydration. Drinking enough water is essential for keeping things moving in the GI tract, and being backed up can lead to bloating and discomfort. One study on sauna-induced dehydration also found that not drinking enough water harmed the gut’s ability to keep out foreign pathogens (but more research is needed on this concept to be sure).12
For these reasons, even a quick jaunt across state lines can have implications for your microbiome. The disruptions are even more pronounced when you jump across time zones.
Your Microbiome Gets Jet Lag, Too
The same factors that affect your circadian rhythm (light/dark cycles, diet/eating patterns) influence your gut microbiome, too.13,15
These external cues govern everything from your microbiota’s composition (certain species increase during your sleeping/fasting phase, while others increase during the waking/eating phase) to its location in the gut (gut bacteria begin their day in one part of the intestinal lining and gradually shift as it gets later 🤯).14
Just like you, your gut bacteria follows a daily rhythm. And any disruptions to this rhythm, such as a transatlantic flight, can throw the whole ecosystem into disarray. Studies on both mice and humans have shown that jet lag contributes to gut dysbiosis (imbalance) and can cause increases in pathogenic bacteria, though levels of these microbes seem to drop back to normal once travelers adjust to their new time zone.13,15
How to Keep Your Gut Happy During Travel
The week leading up to travel is the perfect time to adopt routines that support gut health, allowing you to take that first step into a new experience with a solid foundation. There are also simple ways you can protect the health of your gut in transit and after landing.
Use this quick checklist every time you fly to prevent digestive issues during air travel:
Before Flying:
- Take a (clinically studied) probiotic: The right probiotic can introduce beneficial bacteria to your gut to fortify your microbiome’s defenses and prepare it for the challenges of air travel. We formulated DS-01®️ Daily Synbiotic with 24 clinically and scientifically studied strains to support multiple markers of gastrointestinal health, including regularity and bowel movement frequency, stool quality and consistency, and alleviate digestive discomforts like gas and bloating—making it an ideal pre-travel (and throughout-travel) companion.
- Plan ahead: As much as possible, try to mitigate the potential stress of travel by preparing in advance. Locate your passports or any necessary visas and keep them in a safe spot, create a packing list you can easily check off, make a plan for getting to and from the airport, and leave yourself additional time.
- Prioritize sleep: Given the link between your circadian rhythm and your gut microbiome, you don’t want to start a long trip sleep-deprived. Sleeplessness can lead to a physiological stress response that alters your microbiome, causing metabolic disruption, impaired immune function, and stress.13 These all make sleep even more difficult, kicking off a vicious cycle. The TL;DR? Prioritizing sleep hygiene before travel is vitally important to maximizing microbial function.
- Steer clear of social jet lag: Anyone who has had a late dinner out with friends and woken up in a stupor the next day knows that social jet lag—or having a social schedule that doesn’t sync up with your natural sleep rhythms—is all too real. And research shows it can mess with your gut thanks to its impact on sleep, diet choices, and meal timing.16 While you don’t need to swear off fun in the week leading up to travel, do your best to keep your social calendar from interfering with bedtime.
- Keep up with the basics: Eating plenty of plant-based dietary fiber, drinking the recommended 2.7 to 3.7 liters (~11 to 15 cups) of water a day, and reducing alcohol consumption will all help prepare your gut for takeoff.17
During Flight:
- Avoid alcohol: Tempting as the drink cart might be, alcohol is known to reduce the integrity of the gut barrier, harming cells lining the small intestine that are important gatekeepers for unwanted pathogens.18 Translation: Drinking opens up the microbial doors to dysbiosis, bacterial overgrowth, and pro-inflammatory cytokines during an already tenuous time for the gut, so you’re better off waiting to imbibe until you land.
- Snack and sip smart: During the flight, stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water (bring a refillable water bottle so you don’t have to wait on the flight attendants) and snack on foods that are high in fiber, like fruits and vegetables or nuts, to promote easier digestion. Steering clear of stimulants like caffeine may also help ease your flight jitters.19
- Do your best to stay calm: Doing breathing exercises, listening to flying-specific meditations, and loading up your device with feel-good shows or songs are all helpful ways to regulate your nervous system—and, by extension, soothe digestive discomfort. Of course, chilling out on an airplane can sometimes be easier said than done. If you’re a nervous flyer, don’t think of your gut as just another thing to stress about. Know that you can pick up on your calming, gut-healthy routine once you land (safely!).
After Landing:
- Exercise: Signing up for a local workout class or taking a scenic jog will keep things moving in more ways than one. Doing moderate-to-intense exercise at least 2–3 times a week (for roughly 150–270 minutes total) seems to have a beneficial effect on gut microbial species, so do your best to keep up with an active routine on the road.20
- Gradually introduce new cuisines: For the first few meals in your new destination, try to stick to familiar foods that are easy for your body to digest; save that elaborate tasting menu for later in your trip.
- Help your circadian rhythm adjust to your new environment: When you zip across multiple time zones in one day, some degree of jet lag is inevitable. You can help your body adjust to its new surroundings by being strategic about exposure to light (get outside first thing in the morning if you can) and dark (pack a sleep mask to reinforce bedtime).
- Try a melatonin supplement to sleep: There is at least 400 times more melatonin in the GI tract than the pineal gland, and taking melatonin might also have positive impacts on the inflammatory response in the gut.21,22 As for the best timing and dose, randomized trials on airline passengers and staff have found that taking 0.5–5 milligrams of melatonin close to target bedtime (10 p.m.–midnight at one’s destination) can decrease jet lag from flights crossing five or more time zones.23 Taking melatonin at bedtime for 2–4 days after landing should help ease you into your new routine—but be sure to pair it with good sleep hygiene too.23,24
- Flood your body with serotonin: Serotonin is another hormone that’s essential for sleep and digestion. If you’re low on serotonin, your body will lack the building blocks needed for proper melatonin production. Natural ways to increase serotonin include doing yoga and meditation and getting natural sunlight.25-27 Al fresco vinyasa flow, anyone?
- Keep taking probiotics: Sticking with a daily probiotic routine on the road (and once you get home) will benefit more than just your poop schedule. The gut is a central switchboard for other body systems, and probiotics can have positive downstream effects on your skin, heart, and immune function, too.28-30
The Sky Doesn’t Need to Be Your Limit
Everything from turbulence anxiety to changes in humidity to jet lag can disrupt your gut microbiome and the bodily systems it communicates with during air travel. Thankfully, by following a few relatively simple tips before, during, and after flying, you can make sure the sky doesn’t limit your digestion or your ability to enjoy new places.
Citations
- Future of aviation. (n.d.). https://www.icao.int/Meetings/FutureOfAviation/Pages/default.aspx
- Abuso, A. B. V., Hashmi, M., Hashmi, H., Khoo, A., & Parsaik, A. (2023). Overcoming fear of flying: A combined approach of psychopharmacology and gradual exposure therapy. Curēus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.39773
- Martin, C. R., Osadchiy, V., Kalani, A., & Mayer, E. A. (2018). The brain-gut-microbiome axis. Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 6(2), 133–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmgh.2018.04.003
- Schneider, K. M., Blank, N., Alvarez, Y., Thum, K., Lundgren, P., Litichevskiy, L., Sleeman, M., Bahnsen, K., Kim, J., Kardo, S., Patel, S., Dohnalová, L., Uhr, G. T., Descamps, H. C., Kircher, S., McSween, A. M., Ardabili, A. R., Nemec, K. M., Jimenez, M. T., . . . Thaiss, C. A. (2023). The enteric nervous system relays psychological stress to intestinal inflammation. Cell, 186(13), 2823-2838.e20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2023.05.001
- Molotla-Torres, D. E., Guzmán-Mejía, F., Godínez-Victoria, M., & Drago-Serrano, M. E. (2023). Role of stress on driving the intestinal paracellular permeability. Current Issues in Molecular Biology, 45(11), 9284–9305. https://doi.org/10.3390/cimb45110581
- Glaser, R., & Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. (2005). Stress-induced immune dysfunction: Implications for health. Nature Reviews. Immunology, 5(3), 243–251. https://doi.org/10.1038/nri1571
- Lyte, M., & Ernst, S. (1992). Catecholamine induced growth of gram negative bacteria. Life Sciences, 50(3), 203–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-3205(92)90273-r
- Bailey, M. T., Dowd, S. E., Galley, J. D., Hufnagle, A. R., Allen, R. G., & Lyte, M. (2011). Exposure to a social stressor alters the structure of the intestinal microbiota: Implications for stressor-induced immunomodulation. Brain, Behavior, And Immunity, 25(3), 397–407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2010.10.023
- Rastogi, S., & Singh, A. (2022). Gut microbiome and human health: Exploring how the probiotic genus Lactobacillus modulate immune responses. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.1042189
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- Weiss, H., Hertzberg, V. S., Dupont, C., Espinoza, J. L., Levy, S., Nelson, K., & Norris, S. (2018). The airplane cabin microbiome. Microbial Ecology, 77(1), 87–95. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-018-1191-3
- Rubio, M. F. R., Eriksson, U., Brummer, R. J., & König, J. (2021). Sauna dehydration as a new physiological challenge model for intestinal barrier function. Scientific Reports, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-94814-0
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