Flying as an international stewardess was perfect for me. It fit my passion for exploring the world and immersing myself in foreign cultures.

Hired more for our beauty than our brains, we Pan Am stews in our spike heels encouraged ticket sales by our very presence, subliminally broadcasting wherever we went, the skies were safe and romantic.

And I was one of them. Just luck, I guess: a 1965 B.A. graduate in French Lit being plucked from among thousands of Pan Am applicants.

Over the next 21 years, I flew about 10 million miles. I tallied more than 300 flights to both London and Tokyo. About 100 to Hong Kong, 50 to Brazil, about 30 to New Zealand, a charter to Scotland one day. What more can I say?

After six months of flying, I became a chief purser and my claim to fame was anticipating passengers’ needs before they asked. (I also got pretty good at guessing passengers’ occupations.) My flights were exciting and educational, and my favorite trip was "round the world east" with layovers in London, Beirut, Deli, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Honolulu.

ON A JUMPSEAT in the middle of the night. We missed about 10 nights of sleep every month.

The flights were long and grueling, with sleep deprivation and toxic conditions. We felt like hell, but we were young and inspired. Very little was known, then, about the cumulative effects of long-distance international flying, and our high-flying lifestyle would become the foundation for my research.

But I’m jumping ahead.

On my round-the-world trips, Honolulu became my reward, where I could unwind, and a short ocean swim always rejuvenated me in the most magical way.

Even one day when I got stung by a Portuguese man-o-war (macho jellyfish), the outcome was magical.

With the sting on my arm screaming its alarm, I sought healing from the aloe plants flourishing in a friend’s garden.

Seeing me, my friend said, "It’s interesting that you should show up now. My neighbor’s guest cottage just became available today. Why don’t you take it before she puts it in the paper?"

The cottage had fresh ocean breezes with a panorama that included the sunrise. The landlady said I could rent it, and a call to the airport offered me an immediate transfer. Oh, my gosh. But I felt frozen with fear even in conceiving such a life change.

"Diana, if you move to Hawaii, you’ll be going with the flow," my friend persuaded.

I had never thought of life as having a flow like a current in the ocean. I’d always done what my parents, teachers, boyfriends, and employers had wanted.

But now I decided to go with the flow to Hawaii.

Years flew by and illness from accumulated airplane toxins ended my flying career. I felt as if I had been flying along on a trapeze, doing stunts on the high bar when, suddenly, I had to let go because I was too weak to hold on. As I fearfully dropped into the unknown, a whole new world (not the big ball I'd been flying around) opened up.

Comforting passengers had been my profession, so I found a new way to serve passengers -- by teaching them to fly smart and demand fair treatment from the airlines.

Flying around the world with crewmates.

When I was flying, finding better ways to mitigate crew and passenger suffering was my obsession. For more than a decade I took copious notes on airline cocktail napkins. Now this valuable research grew into a series of aviation health books.

So new was this subject that when my first book, Jet Smart was published in 1992, I had to petition the Library of Congress to add the categories “jet lag” and "air travel: health." And they did.

I am grateful that my writing has been well received by the flying public and has instigated a number of worldwide investigations about toxic airplane conditions and airline policies that harm passengers, such as spraying them with pesticide.

To offset these horrendous challenges of flying, I always offer coping strategies. My tips have been featured in interviews with CNN, Dateline, Forbes, Hard Copy, Extra, USA Today, New York Times, and others.

I've introduced hundreds (really!) of healthy flying coping skills for both frequent and infrequent flyers. Here are three examples:

Germ Prevention. To help block the spread of germs in crowded airplane cabins, coat nostrils with an edible oil (such as olive oil), and wear a handkerchief over nose and mouth.

Sleeping on Long Flights. If you land in the evening, don’t sleep on board (so you can sleep at night). If you land in the morning, sleep all you can on board.

Affirmation. The following affirmation is very effective if fear or worry creeps into one's mind.

I count my Blessings and do my best.
I have faith that the Almighty Pilot takes care of the rest.