Traveling – Too Many Steps

Above the Los Angeles skyline, I often look up as a private jet – celebrity or corporate usually – soars across the sky. Really expensive extravagance? Business necessity? How about those men and women in business suits, sitting in first and business class, pouring over reports and documents? And the pilots and flight attendants who serve them? Envious of a life filled with global travel, exciting venues, rushing from important meeting to breathtaking venues. Amazing meals, first class hotel room or deluxe suites, wines at the top of the food chain? Wow!

When I have been required to travel long distances for clients, people high-five me on my “vacation.” Vacation? Leave late at night, sleep on the noisy plane wearing a sleep mask, tolerating nasty airline food, and arrive in the wee hours of the morning… change clothes and head directly for a day of meetings. Sometimes windowless rooms. Sometimes conference rooms with stunning views… of the building next door. Food brought in. Maybe a nice dinner… but there is a business agenda and an early meeting the next morning. Jet lag is slamming you. Next morning, the non-stop meeting continues… rushing to make that later-in-the-day flight back home. Exhausted, you drive home and collapse… except for all those client calls and emails that gathered while you were gone. “How was your vacation,” you hear. The urge to punch wells up.

Bottom line: business travel is not actually good for the business travelers, no matter how “luxurious” we might think it to be. And the more you travel and the longer the distances, the less healthy you are likely to be. Professors from England’s University of Surrey (Scott A. Cohen) and Sweden’s Lund University (Stefan Gössling) address the topic in their Sage Journal publication (revised last March): The Darker Side of Hypermobility, which, in addition to original research, summarizes work conducted and reported in various studies over the past fifteen years.

You don’t have to look at those living this jet-set lifestyle with envy and jealousy anymore. Those frequent flyers are putting themselves and their health at serious risk. The above report is well-summarized in the September 10^th issue of FastCompany.com. “‘[Business travel] has a wide range of physiological, psychological and emotional, and social consequences that are often overlooked, because being a ‘road warrior’ tends to get glamorized through marketing and social media,’ says Cohen. He argues that this glamorization of hypermobility—used to sell flights, frequent-flyer memberships, and hotel rooms—has silenced the negative health effects frequent business travelers expose themselves to.”

Here are some of the lovely factors and risks such travelers face (summarized in FastCompany.com):

Scientists now understand that specific genes can affect how quickly we age—and it appears the more someone travels, the faster they age. ‘Frequent flying can lead to chronic jet lag, which can cause memory impairment and has been linked in studies to disrupting gene expression that influences aging and the immune system, and increased risk of heart attack or stroke,’ says Cohen…

‘Radiation exposure is hundreds of times higher at high altitude than at ground," says Cohen… Matter of fact, it’s so high that ‘there have been calls to classify frequent business travelers as ‘radiation workers’…’ 

No matter if you’re in economy or first class, everyone on a long-haul transatlantic flight is breathing the same recirculated air. Not only does this expose frequent business travelers to germs more often, the jet lag and general tiredness from running to and from airports ‘can even switch off genes that are linked to the immune system,’ Cohen notes in his paper. This means frequent travelers are not as well equipped to fight off disease as people who travel less frequently…

Unsurprisingly, those who travel a lot generally don’t have the chance to eat meals prepared with fresh, healthy foods. Airline foods are packed with salt and sugar so they can retain their taste at higher altitudes during long journeys. But that salt and sugar will wreak havoc on your body over the long term. Cohen says the poor diet, combined with a general increase in alcohol and the lack of exercise opportunities while traveling, means frequent travelers have higher risk of obesity…

‘The disruption of the circadian rhythm from jet lag affects mood, judgment, and concentration for up to six days,’ says Cohen. In his review of the literature, he found that the cumulative effect of the stress from preparing for a trip and the jet lag from those trips can lead to ‘travel disorientation.’

‘There is the stress of preparing for a trip, the fact that the time spent traveling is rarely offset through a reduced workload, and the anxieties of ‘inbox overload,' ’ says Cohen. ‘Stress is compounded through weather delays, technical failures, increased security checks, and rising anxieties over terrorism and safety.’

Frequent business travelers often also feel lonely and isolated—as well as guilty for leaving family members behind. Their spouses, in turn, often feel resentment and anger. When you combine the stress with the isolation and guilt, it can lead to serious mental health issues, notes Cohen. ‘One study found that employees of the World Bank who travel frequently for work have a threefold increase in psychological claims on medical insurance as opposed to nontravelers.’Still jealous of that lifestyle?

Obviously, if you take one such trip every few months, the impact can be minimal, but if you are traveling weeks out of each month, the impact can actually be worse. For some, it’s simply the nature of the job, so the choice of work marks the risk. Flight attendants and pilot face some of these risks, but at least when they arrive, they have time to themselves, but radiation is constant. Whatever the consequences, just ignoring the risk is clearly not particularly wise. Companies and the high-profile travelers themselves need to take steps to minimize the risks.

I’m Peter Dekom, and a little common sense can go a long way to moderate these risks.