Expert reveals one thing everyone should do after a flight and the ugly consequences if you don't

An expert has shared a hack which may help to prevent some of the unpleasant consequences of traveling by plane.

Traveling by plane is not exactly the most pleasant experience - being stuck in a metal tube with hundreds of strangers being propeled through the sky at 30,000ft by dead dinosaurs.

Every time a plane approaches the runway, there's the frantic sound of prayers coming from inside pleading 'please god, let it fly' - and that's the just the pilot.

When you add in the fact that you're sitting in a pressurized cabin filled with stale recycled air, it doesn't do much to improve the experience.

Then, of course, you add in all the people who've been in your seat before you, with their hands all over the same tray table you unfold and the armrests you place your hands on.

Nothing like a confined space to prevent the spread of disease (chain45154/Getty)

It's this aspect of plane travel which makes it a prime place to pick up something unpleasant, and I don't mean the weirdo hanging out in the airport bar.

Karen Duus, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Touro University Nevada, explained: “The air around all of us and any other living thing we encounter is surrounded by a small cloud of microbes, skin particles and dust particles, directly from our bodies or clothing.

“As people gather, those little personal clouds mingle, and some of it is exchanged and sticks to us or our clothing as we touch, brush against, sit or lie on different surfaces, pass by people, pets, animals and plants.”

Many of us come off a plane with that uncomfortable grubby feeling, as though the staleness of the air in the cabin is somehow sticking to us.

Dr. Annie DePasquale, who specializes in family medicine and founded Collaborating Docs, added that there's also a heightened risk if someone on your flight is sick.

“Transmission risk increases within about one row or one meter,” she said. “Coughs and sneezes can still send droplets onto your sleeves, lap or scarf, even with strong cabin filtration in place.”

And, well, we're not wrong when it comes to microbes, but one person has shared a trick to help stop the ugly consequences of germs spreading into your home.

DePasquale shared that this is just to throw your clothes in the wash as soon as you get home, saying: “Drop travel clothes directly into a hamper or washer. Avoid shaking items, which can disperse particles."

You can easily pick up a bug on the plane (Andrey Sayfutdinov/Getty)

You can also take a shower, which most of us would probably want to do anyway to wash off that plane feeling.

If you want to take things further still, you can also run some sanitizer over objects you come into frequent contact with.

Phones and tablets are a good place to start, with our fingers smearing all kinds of things all over their screens.

So, there you go - enjoy your flight!

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