How To Stay Healthy While Travelling
Do you wish to know how to stay healthy while travelling? Read on, this article is specially made for you to ensure your safety while you plan and take that trip.
How To Stay Healthy While Travelling
So you want to travel, and you are so excited about that family trip or vacation, which sounds wonderful, by the way, but did you know that the tray table, yes the same tray table you eat off from on an aeroplane, holds the largest number of germs on that airplane? This just goes to show that it’s so easy to get a bacterial infection on a plane. It’s also very easy to get out of shape or be overwhelmed by stress while planning a vacation or while travelling.
Nevertheless, we are here to give you some simple and practical guidelines on how you can stay healthy while travelling.
Tips on How To Stay Healthy While Traveling.
It could be a real brain-racking exercise to practice all the do’s and don’ts of travelling, but these few tips are so practical that you can induce them into your regular daily routines. We categorised them into before-travelling tips, during-travelling tips, and after-travelling tips. This way, you won’t get them mixed up. You must know these tips before you travel.
Before Travelling Tips
1. Eat Healthily: Before you think of where you want to travel or even buy those flight tickets, you should ensure that you eat healthily. And no, two days of eating only veggies will not supplement the nutrients you would have gotten if you maintained a regular healthy diet. The aeroplane, no matter how clean it may appear, is filled with lots of germs and one way to effectively protect yourself is to build up your immune system before going on any trip. We advise you to consume diets rich in zinc, copper, selenium, vitamin B6 and folic acid. So drink a lot of water, reduce carbs and unhealthy snacks, and stop taking alcohol.
2. Get Enough Sleep: Research shows that lack of sleep leads to stress and possibly depression. That is why we advise you don’t wait until the last minute before setting your life in order. Already, travelling can be very hectic. From getting your passport ready to ensuring you don’t miss your flight and everything in between. And that is why you need to sleep enough. Instead of waiting till the last minute before you make arrangements for your pets, put in extra hours at work, finish up your laundry, rearrange your meetings and plan your itinerary, do it all at the right time and then get enough sleep prior to when you are going to travel. This will help your immune system produce cytokines which help to fight infectious diseases.
3. Get Enough Medication: If you are currently undergoing any treatment, it is safe to get all the medications you will need and take them with you. This is because, when you get to the new state, it could be difficult to get the same medications and health treatment as you would at home. Also, see your dentist before travelling if you have toothache symptoms.
4. Prepare for allergies: Let’s face it, you are going to a new town, which is filled with lots of new cuisines, and some of them may have ingredients to which you are allergic. Instead of asking the chef ever so often what he used in making the dish before you, you can easily go with your medications. But if you want to be safer, we advise you do a thorough research on the restaurants in the town you are travelling to and their recipes. As long as you are researching things, why not research the nearest hospital to your place of accommodation? Now, we are not praying for you to fall ill during your vacation, but it is better to be safe than sorry. And ensuring that you know exactly where the hospital is and how to get to it will ensure your safety after traveling.
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During the Trip
1. Pack Sanitary Wipe: The aeroplane is crawling with lots of infections. From your neighbour to the seat to the tray table. Everything is infected. But you can prevent lots of infections from entering your body by cleaning your tray table with an antibacterial wipe.
2. Sleep: There is a huge possibility that you may want to doze off while you are in the aeroplane, and this is necessary for your health. But before you nod off and wake up with a cramped neck, ensure that you align your head with a travel pillow. It will help ensure sound sleep.
3. Protect Your Ears: Constant exposure to aeroplane-level sounds can lead to temporary hearing problems. Now, you may want to turn up the sound of your music, but we can assure you that you are only making things worse. What you should use are noise-cancelling headphones and filtered earplugs.
4. Pack Healthy Snacks: The air hostess can bring you all sorts of dishes, but Summer Sanders, a plant-based nutritionist, says that it is best to have lots of water in your body’s system while travelling. And if you don’t want to drink a whole gallon of water while travelling, you can opt for some healthy snacks like watermelon, cucumbers, salads, and so on.
5. Exercise: It is a known fact that sitting for long can cause blood clots in your legs, which may lead to numbness. To avoid this, go for a long walk before takeoff. Instead of taking a cab to the airport, stop five minutes from the airport and then walk to it. But if you are already running late, don’t bother; you will be running to catch your flight, and that will take care of that problem. Next, wear compression socks which will encourage blood flow and stay hydrated. Lastly, take small steps around the aisle when you can or at least stretch your calf muscles while sitting.
After The Trip
1. Stick to The Basics: You can easily pick a hotel close to a grocery store. We encourage you to dine out. After all, it’s a good way of experiencing the area’s restaurants and ambience. But for the start of your day, go shopping and start the day with a healthy meal. And what’s more? You will get to explore the city’s local life and food culture when you go shopping.
2. Take Supplements: Get prescribed supplements from your doctor to help boost your immune system.
Safe travels!