How to Stay Healthy on Vacation

 

Traveling can be really stressful on your body and on your relationship with the people you are traveling with. Restless nights in unfamiliar hotels, the “I can eat it, I’m on Vacation” diet your about to adopt and the “We have to see everything” timetable can really take a toll on you. Not to mention being locked up in a car or plane for hours on end with billions of everyone else’s germs.

Surprisingly, hotels can be more detrimental to one’s immune system than the health risks associated with flying. Vacationers tend to go to bed late, wake up early and get less than seven hours of sleep a night. This triples the risk of getting a common cold. Lumpy hotel beds and extra firm pillows will also disrupt sleep.

Families and individuals on vacation also tend to consume foods that they normally would not if cooking at home – pizza, ice cream, candy, junk food – and that means a vacation diet that’s high in sugar and low in vitamins and minerals. Sugar has been shown to weaken the white blood cells that attack pernicious bacteria. Don’t cancel that planned trip to the beach or Europe so fast, here are a few recommendations for how to beat a cold and ward off any sickness when traveling.

You should start taking 2,000 milligrams of Vitamin C each day to strengthen the immune system as well as snacking on foods that are high in probiotics (the “good” bacteria). Probiotics are found in yogurt, Kombucha tea, miso soup, Kefir, fermented cabbage (like sauerkraut and Kimchi) and tempeh. They are also available as an over the counter supplement in capsule form. For little ones who may have difficulty swallowing supplements, foods that are rich in Vitamin C include oranges, red pepper, kale, strawberries, broccoli, kiwi and guava. Don’t forget to get plenty of sleep as well.

It’s still important to continue your Vitamin C routine usage when on vacation. Zinc lozenges are easy to pack and help support the immune system and works best when taken at the first sign of illness. You might even consider bring a mask to wear next to the guy with a fever on the plane. Hand sanitizer is also a must, use it frequently and defiantly before eating or drinking anything. You would be surprised how dirty door handles and money are!

If you’re reading this in bed because you’re home sick, leave your air-conditioned house or apartment right now for at least 30 minutes. Direct sunlight helps the liver produce Vitamin D3, which improves bone health and enables the body to build up its stock of antimicrobial peptides, which fight off a wide range of infections. The sun is one of the best ways to prevent a cold and so important for getting over one.