How to Stay Healthy While Traveling

When traveling, it’s important to protect your health so that you are healthy and happy when you arrive at your destination.  Especially with the recent Enterovirus and Ebola outbreaks. Some easy ways to stay healthy while traveling are to take supplements beforehand, practice good hygiene during your travels, keep moving and stay hydrated when traveling long distances. You’ll also want to be prepared with a first-aid kit.

 How to Stay Healthy While Traveling

Take Supplements Before You Travel

 According to Everydayhealth.com, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables before you travel will give your immune system a boost and help you to stay healthy while traveling. Supplements can also be a great idea, but you need to keep important facts, like there’s no cure for the common cold, in mind.

Before getting on a crowded plane or bus, you might consider using products that claim to help prevent colds. Some people are also fans of taking zinc, Echinacea, and vitamin C to help bolster their immune systems. While there are no studies to support that supplements prevent colds, they may help you feel better sooner if you do get sick. Is it a placebo effect? Possibly. All that matters, though, is that you feel better for your travels.

Use Good Hygiene While Traveling

 It’s more difficult to come down sick if you’re practicing good hygiene. You should get in the habit of washing your hands before eating. You should also wash your hands after going to the bathroom. A proper hand washing should produce plenty of lather and last for however long it takes you to sing “Happy Birthday”. Carry around hand sanitizer if you’re worried about not being able to get to a wash room. Also remember to wipe down seats, arm rests, handles, and other items people may have touched with a sanitizing tissue.

Move Around and Stay Hydrated

 If you’re traveling long distances, you need to get up and move 10 minutes for every hour. Drink plenty of water. Switch seats if there is room on the plane or bus so that you’re not sitting next to other passengers. If you notice someone who is sneezing or coughing on your flight or ride, you could even consider wearing a mask. As a courtesy to other travelers, you should also wear a mask if you are the one who is sick while traveling. Who cares what other people may think?  You’ll probably never see them again anyway.

 Be Prepared

 Carry a little bag filled with the medications and supplements that you often use while you are sick. Add hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, and even a couple of extra surgical masks to the kit. This way, even while you’re traveling, if you or someone else comes down sick, you can provide help. With things like Ebola and the Enterovirus going around, not to mention Flu, you really can’t be too careful if you want to stay healthy while traveling.

What are some of your best tips to stay healthy while traveling?

photo credit: caribb  Nick Kenrick. Marcin Wichary ell brown via cc