Staying Healthy on Travel

Stay as hydrated as possible during the flight. Wash your hands or use a cleaner of some sort and keep keep your hands away from you face. Good luck.

I have been using for years now a Saline solution I bought at a local drug store , it is in a small spray bottle so your able to take it onboard the airplane with no problem. I spray it before boarding and during the flight a few times depending on how long of course. Used it when traveling to London , Paris plus all the domestic flights here in the USA. My allergies of course are better , "that is a remedy for allergies / sinus problems" . IT also helps to keep the colds and what I used catch on board the plane every trip at bay , work or just being around someone who is coughing and sneezing. I saw an "old " time family Dr. once on TV giving advice to staying healthy that is where I came to see this advice. Gave up a prescription drug and now this salt solution does the job.. I take blood pressure med. and asked my family Dr. . about this before starting and he said was ok.. you might want to ask your Dr. depending on what med's you take.

I do something similar to Gail, but I take a neti pot and salt packets. I also take goldenseal drops to add to the solution which supposedly is a natural antibiotic but who knows and you may be exposed to viruses anyway. The first few days after arriving I use the neti pot morning and night, then I will back off to just using it in the AMs which is my normal routine.

I also take the homeopathic remedy Airborne. I use this twice a day for the first few days then back off to once a day or less. If I feel like I have caught something, I will up that to 3X a day. I like the fizzy tabs better than the chewables and I try to add it to OJ instead of just plain water but sometimes water will just have to do.

I doubt either of these have any data to back them up but they make me feel better and seem to work for me as preventive measures. I ran out of Airborne last time so next time I have a note to self to take enough Airborne to cover 1.5 times the number of days I will be gone.

Pam, I use a neti pot at home and would love to take it with me to Italy but I'm curious as to how what kind of water you use when traveling...do you use regular tap water and how do you warm the water? I always thought I had to use filtered warm water.

Sheron, I try to use bottled water when I travel but if I am in a big city I don't mind using tap water. I know there are stories about horrible funguses but I've not had a problem...yet, lol. I don't use distilled water at home, I just use tap water.

When I use bottled water I just run the bottle under the hot tap in the sink to warm it up. I don't mind if it's cool.

Nasal irrigation as described above by many. Also Vitamin C, high water intake, and bring moist toilettes to clean your seat area, especially tray table, remote controls. Do that in your hotel/B&B room as well.

The air in First Class is a lot cleaner.

Neti pots: If using tap water, best to use boiled, cooled tap water. Or one of the alternatives described on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) page linked here: http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/naegleria/sinus-rinsing.html

Unboiled tap water in Neti pots has resulted in fatal infections caused by the amoeba Naegleria fowleri in both the USA and Europe. The amoeba crawls from the nasal cavity along the olfactory nerve straight into the brain.

http://outbreaknewstoday.com/oslo-woman-dies-from-naegleria-fowleri-linked-to-daily-nasal-washing-with-tap-water-37801/

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/well/2012/09/03/rare-infection-prompts-neti-pot-warning/?referer=

Safe travels!

Recommendations from our ski team director ;

Just making it Europe in decent health is the first part of the battle -- now you need to make it thru the first week!

A.) Keep your hands clean. Wash as often as possible en route (20secs minimum). Use hand sanitizer or wipes when you can't wash. Pack a few cleaning wipes in a Ziplock for your airplane seats.

B.) Substitute fist bumps or hugs for hand shakes. The hands are the bug's highway so try and skip hand shakes for the next two weeks (I realize this is a hard habit to break). When you do shake hands, clean your hands asap afterwards.

C.) If you feel illness coming on or know you are sick, keep yourself isolated from the USA group for 48-72 hours please. You don't have to totally quarantine yourself, but keeping a modest distance at meals, in the hotel, etc. for at least a few days will help you get past the most contagious period so you don't pass on whatever you have.

D.) Use a napkin to hold buffet serving utensils and then use hand sanitizer or a wipe before eating. Norovirus can be contained or prevented with excellent hygiene before/during/after meals as well as around public restrooms. AXCS is already asking the hotel to help with sanitizers and wipes.

E.) Keep your hands clean when sharing waxing gear and be aware of likely "messy" surfaces in all public areas both when traveling over and at the MWC.

We're getting ready to fly to Europe for the second time this year on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. You can tell the air is much cleaner than in old generation planes. Try to pick a flight on one to see the difference.

each time I've flown long distance I've ended up with a cold for a few days

you're breathing in the germ ridden, recycled air of your fellow passengers so I doubt there is much you can do

fly more often to build up your immunity!

MrsERB, you are correct, but at least you had a pleasant experience in 1st class prior to the microbes from the neti pot eating their way through your brain.

I travel to Europe every 4 to 5 months more or less; and have done so for about a dozen years. I have yet to be seriously ill. I don't have a neti pot or wipes or ...... I shake hands, I hug, I do the whole 2 or 3 cheek kissing ceremony. I guess if you have a weak constitution and you have invested a lot for the trip you should do what ever seems to make sense to you. But I sort of think on average, in Europe, you don't have a greater or lesser chance of getting sick than you would at home. The exception I guess would be the flight, but that cant be substantially worse than going to the movies or a busy shopping center. Somehow the flight attendants survive it.

I just take my usual routine and crank it up a notch. Always wash hands, use sanitizer and wipes, take multivitamins AND Emergen-C or Airborne, lots of saline solution. It's being confined in a metal tube with hundreds of fine folks that causes colds etc. to spread, it's not the being in Europe. Although you'll also be using more mass transit than you're used to and those spread germs too.

Eat well, drink plenty of water, get a lot of sleep in the week prior to your departure. That way you should arrive healthy.

Hi,

Learn how to pace yourself, don't short change yourself on sleep and drink plenty of water. If you can sleep on trains (day), all the better. A nap on the train is better than no sleep at all, esp if you deprived of it the night before. Traveling in the summer I do all right on the flight over. It's the summer cold I get sometimes while traveling over there, which hampers your traveling and affects the energy level.

I tend to alternate large quantities of bottled water with large quantities of the local alcoholic beverage. One keeps me hydrated while the other ensures I get the needed rest, acts as an oral antiseptic and provides large quantities of antioxidants.

I wipe down all hard surfaces by my plane seat.. tray table, armrests, and touch screen .. a bit of alcohol run on a Kleenex or a antibacterial wet wipe. Most virus are spread by touch.. and those surfaces get wiped down almost never.. so ...

I also bring my own little medical kit.. just a few basics, you can always get most things in Europe ( but not Pepto Bismal I have discovered) .. but who wants to look for a pharmacy at 2 am .. I bring a decongestant, something for pain/headache/ and tummy stuff.. usually pepto and immodium, and a small tube of antibacterial cream and a few bandages. Takes no space at all.

Eat lots of fresh fruit & vegetables, drink lots of water (to offset the extra wine, beer, whisky & coffee you'll be drinking), wash your hands often with soap & water AND DON"T TOUCH YOUR FACE! Keep your hands off your nose and eyes - those are the two main entry point for cold viruses. And then get enough sleep.

This should be your MO the 2 weeks before the trip and during the trip, even if you can't manage it during your everyday life.

Why not just be practical and just wear a surgical mask? If you have a propensity for allergies or breathing irritations, this would help a lot.

I see people do it more and more on planes, and walking in cities with a lot of air pollution.

In this day and age of bird flu and other diseases, we would all be doing each other a favour if more people did this especially in the closed and crowded environment of an air plane. If there is going to be a pandemic, guess how it would likely be spread.

People wear sleeping masks on planes, don't they?

Slap a surgical mask on and i guarantee you that the parents in the next row will not let any unruly snotty nosed child bother you.

Surgical masks don't stop viruses. Sorry.

Spending the evening in Bonn tonight with a couple of great oral antiseptics