VITALS

Air travel can produce rapid air pressure changes--especially during descent--that can affect your ears.

Your Eustachian tubes connect the back of your throat with your middle ear and help stabilize pressure in your ears. But if the tubes don’t open often enough, your ears may feel blocked. And that can hurt. To prevent blockage:

* Chew gum: Chewing stimulates saliva flow, which causes you to swallow often. Swallowing helps open your Eustachian tubes. (Have babies suck on a bottle or pacifier.)

* Try yawning: This also opens your Eustachian tubes.

* Don’t sleep when landing: You may not swallow often enough.

* Pinch your nose: Pinch your nostrils shut, take a mouthful of air and gently force the air into your nose, as if you were trying to blow open your nostrils. Or pinch your nostrils shut and swallow.

* Use a decongestant nasal spray: Use the spray 30 minutes to an hour before descent. It shrinks the membranes lining your Eustachian tubes so the tubes won’t close as easily. A decongestant spray can also help open blocked ears. Follow label directions.

* Seek help: If 24 hours after you land, your ears still haven’t opened or you still have ear pain, see a doctor.

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Reprinted with permission from the Mayo Clinic Health Letter.