AircraftOwner Online

Flying gives us many privileges like seeing the world from above a cloud deck and incredible freedom to leave on a moment’s notice to head almost wherever we want. Being a physician and an Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) adds another dimension to aviation. Not only do I meet pilots through the normal airport channels, I also meet many though their application for their medical certificate. Because I help with problem medicals, I also meet many pilots who are pursuing special issuances from outside our local airport community.

Pilots are truly an extraordinary lot. They come from all walks of life--from those who scrape together money for rental aircraft to those whose only scrapping comes with the sticker on a new credit card. What pilots have in common is the love of flight, the smell of gas and oil, and for most, the turn of a wrench. 

What other group can you find in the same room liberals, conservatives, Republicans, Democrats, environmentalist, oil executives, heterosexuals, homosexuals, men and women, and all of them mad at the same organization (the TSA of course)?

The pilot community is a unique group. Helpful and generous to a fault but argumentative like you would not believe: “What do you mean, you have never flown lean of peak!” But the thing that scares the airline pilot and student pilot alike is the fear of losing their medical certificate.

There are four major factors that affect longevity and they happened to be the same as the ones which affect your medical status. The most important is the one you cannot change--heredity. The classic answer to patients who ask what they can do to live longer is still the same—“keep your parents alive!”
The three remaining factors are ones we can modify. If you use tobacco in any form, ceasing its use is the number one thing you can do to extend your life and you flying privileges. The next two factors we all can work on—keeping our weight down and regular daily exercise. These are tough tasks for pilots who are normally seated during their vocation, avocation, and/or the most pleasant times of their days.

Do not talk to me about your stinking cholesterol.  It is a minor league player in the longevity scheme of things but made much more visible by the opportunistic pharmaceutical industry. If you could take a pill called exercise, the pharmaceutical companies would have you remembering cholesterol like you remember smallpox. Exercise is the most important thing a person can do to keep their medical and to stay alive.

Exercise is defined from a medical perspective as keeping your heart rate in the target zone for 30 minutes every day. The target zone is calculated by taking 220 minus your age and multiplying by .7. Thus for a 50 year old, that number would be 119 (220-50 x .7=119). The important point is the target heart rate is sustained heart rate so activities like tennis will not count since you stop for serves and your heart rate drops. This does not mean tennis is not good exercise. It just is not as good from a cardiovascular point of view as sustained heart rate.

Heart rate is the end point and it does not make any difference how you get there so you can walk up a hill one day, bike the next, swim the next, use a stair climber the next, or whatever, as long as your heart rate is at or above the target continuously for 30 minutes, you will be in much better health for much longer which equates to more renewals of you medical certificate.
The same goes for your weight. In fact, if you do not increase your eating when you start the exercise above, you will lose a half to one pound a week. Add that to some caloric restriction and you will lose even more.

Weight is related to two things—calories “in” and calories “out.” Calories “in” are what your eat and calories “out” are what you expend with exercise and other activity. You cannot gain weight unless you eat more than you expend no matter how many times you say “I don’t eat anything!” Remember, everything you eat counts. From a weight perspective, it does not mean a thing that the caloric content is organic or low fat. In fact, many of the sugar free or fat free stuff on the highly marketed grocery shelves have more calories than the same food with sugar or fat. Read the labels. Just remember, soft drinks (including sports drinks) are liquid candy bars and protein bars are just expensive candy bars!

I value the pilot population and I have lost too many aviation friends to health issues. I can help you with your medical but more importantly, I want you to work on these three risk factors to stay alive. Getting your medical renewed is one thing. Being alive to keep the appointment is another!