Healthier Traveling
Traveling can be stressful, even if its for fun. Stress, dehydration, poor air quality, immobility, radiation exposure and inadequate hydration can all make you more vulnerable to being ill.
You may be exposed to environmental toxins, and pathogens along the way.
The longer the flight, the more potential for the downsides to affect you. Here are my top tips to making travel healthier, so you can have more joy while in transit!
- Be prepared! Allow plenty of
Adding extra stress by rushing or being late, is not helpful!
Get yourself packed ahead of time. Be conservative and bring as little as possible. I travel frequently, so I keep a little travel checklist of essentials. Smaller sizes of items are available at the Health Food Market that will fit into the little quart sized ziplock baggie. I keep a few extra baggies in my suitcase zipper pocket. They come in handy for organizing or for taking a day’s supply of supplements with me on a field trip!
You may enjoy taking an Mp3 and a head set with you to play something you will enjoy. I like to listen to books on tape, but sometimes I just listen to subliminal music as white noice to block out the crying kids, or loud mouth neighbors. You can also use the excuse to listen and catch up if your neighbor turns out to be a boring chatterbox.
2 Protection from solar radiation.
Take red-eye or night flights as much as possible. There is significantly less EMF on night flights because the earth blocks some of the sun’s radiation.
Sitting at the front of the plane gives you more oxygen, but also gives you more radiation exposure. Sitting in the aisle rather than sitting by the window and sitting further back in the plan, is better in terms of radiation exposure.
Be sure to change into fresh clothes and bath with soap and hot water after the flight as soon as possible. Wash your clothes before wearing them again.
3 Hydration
Flying is dehydrating so you must load up on water before. Its good to start the day before making sure you get plenty of fresh pure water to drink.
Fatique is the 1st sign of dehydration. Headaches, light headedness, brain fog, rapid heart beat, strong hunger, muscle cramps, dark &/or frequent urination, constipation and dry mouth and skin are all symptoms of dehydration! If you experience any of these, try drinking more water and see if it helps.
The morning of flying, I recommend drinking as much as 16 ounces of water as quickly as possible. This will not only hydrate you, but will also facilitate your bowel movement. You want to go before you go!
Drinking another 16 – 32 ounces before a morning flight is good. I frequently polish off at least 16 ounces just before entering the security screening. Remember to drink water at room temperature as much as possible.
Take as many 3 ounce glass bottles of water with you as possible, with a pinch of salt, micro-algae powder, berry powder ( CamuCamu for vitamin C) whatever extracts, potions or super foods you choose. (Miron glass (http://www.miron-glas.com) is the best, then blue bottles, then brown bottles, then clear glass in that order.) You can get maybe 8 – 3 oz. bottles in the baggie, so for a long flight this will work if you choose not to drink what they give you on board.
Avoid black tea, coffee, soft drinks, milk and bottled drinks. They are more dehydrating than hydrating. They are likely to be full of sugar too. They are also acidifying to the body. If that’s all you can get, you might choose to drink some, but best to drink even tap water over water with sugar and caffeine or artificial ingredients.
There are small Portable water filters that can be carried on board: http://ariixwaterfilter.com exceeds NSF standard for removal of Giardia, Bacteria, viruses, Cryptosporidium, chlorine, heavy metals, radioactive substances, waterborne chemicals, and more.
I like to bring those little packets of organic instant miso soup. You can easily add these to water for a tasty, mineral rich, probiotic treat.
A Keep the nose moist if you’re traveling longer than a couple hours.
Dry nasal passages can be more vulnerable to bacteria than moist ones. ZylaClear is excellent and comes in a small travel size. You can also use coconut oil to coat the nostrils.
- Protect your Skin If you have tendency to dry skin on your face or body, be sure to apply a good lubricating sealer to your self before flying. Raw virgin oil, coconut, sesame, avocado, cacao butter, shea butter, your choice. I love Neutrabeautiful from www.WildAlgaeLove.com look under products list.
2 Air purification on the flight.
The air on the plane is being breathed by all the passengers. So, you’re getting exposed to whatever they might have. Plus on international flights there will be insecticide sprayed in the cabin before you land. Of course, there’s the dreaded exhaust that inevitably enters the cabin before you take off. So, be pro-active and wear a mini personal air purifier.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=personal+air+purifier
3 Enhance your circulation on the flight.
Deep vein thrombosis is a threat to your health while traveling. The airline magazine usually has a section about this in the back. They tell you to do some simple exercise. Check it out!
Keep your circulation going: Clinch, your legs and buttocks, flex your legs as much as possible. I like to do little leg lifts with my tummy all tight. Might as well get in some ab work! Frequently rotate and flex your ankles. Point your toes, flex your feet and wiggle your toes. Get up and walk around a few times breathing deeply. You can even do some sqats!
If you have poor circulation in your legs already, you might want to wear compression socks.
4 Comfort:
A Sleeping on the flight. Use a very good neck and back support. I suggest a foam cervical support collar. This helps you keep your neck straight and unstressed, your head up, and your mouth closed. Using black out eye covers is a good idea if you want to really feel rested.
5 Avoid Jet Lag/Adjust Body Clock.
If you arrive and its night, try to sleep then. If you arrive and its mid-day, try to stay up as late as you can and get on the local time as quickly as possible.
When flying around the world, its helpful to have a night layover somewhere to give your body a chance to adjust. If this isn’t possible, it might be worth the extra money to get 1st class. I try to save up my miles to use for upgrades on flights longer than 5-6 hours.
Wild Water is a wonderful aid for preventing jet lag. Take before, during and after your flight. This should not interfere with rest/sleep.
7 Eating Smart during transit and while on the road.
Believe it or not, its easy to sprout on the road. Lentils, Fenugreek, Mung, Aduki, Sunflower are all road worthy sprouts. Take them in nylon mesh sprout bags, inside a baggies. You can soak them, drain them, and then carry them with you easily. You’ll be adding living food to whatever you’re eating.
I love to keep Nori Sheets with me. I can daily eat the nori with avocado, and sprouts, which I bring with me too. I like to put the black salt on this, and keep a little travel container of black salt with me, for my water and my nori roll.
Bring a pre-made a salad in a baggie and keep the liquid to a minimum. Internationally and to Hawaii many whole foods are prohibited, but if its prepared into a salad with no peeling, no skin, and no seeds, you can take it on board to enjoy later.
Dehydrated crackers, snack mixes, fruits and nuts are good, but remember, you need to rehydrate after eating dehydrated foods. This means drinking extra water when eating dehydrated foods.
Once again, I would use several packs of The Essentials and/or Wild Essentials, a day. (Wild-Superfood.com)
8 Supplements in addition to the usual.
Cell Food – 20 drops in a cup of water prior to flying and every 2 hours in the air. This helps to improve oxygenation.
Zeolite 15 Drops every 4 hours in route. (www.LifeExtensionSpecialist.com)
Super Blue Green Algae – Extraordinary Nutrition
Enzymes to support your digestive system
Probiotics to support your immune system
Super Sprouts will help you regulate the time change.
Medicinal Mushrooms and Vitamin C. Defend for Forrest from New Earth for example and CamuCamu powder for instance.
Seaweeds and Micro-algae for radiation protection. I recommend Wild Water .
Wild Water, Wild Earth and Wild Forrest are found in Wild Essentials along with enzymes and probiotics. They are excellent, convenient and cheaper than buying the same quality, separately. Wild-SuperFood.com
9 After the flight,
A Use probiotics.
Buy and eat sauerkraut, kvass, or other fermented foods. Use probiotics like Spectrabiotics ( www.SimplySuperFood.com)
- Get rehydrated. Drink plenty and eat juicy foods like sprouts
C get grounded
If you don’t bring a grounding mat to use on your bed… (available online from Walmart called anti-static pad for under $20), then be sure to take off your shoes and stand on the grass/earth for as long as you can, up to an hour even. Great to do this daily. Especially if you can get some sun at the same time, and breath from fresh air! Even Central Part in NYC offers this opportunity. If its cold, then limit your exposure, or use your hands on the earth instead of your feet. This also helps reset your circadian rhythms.
D Circulation
Do some stretching while deep breathing. Walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Visit the gym and use the elliptical or treadmill. Remember to drink more water.
Managing Time Changes
- Find good food once you arrive.
Check your internet search engine for “organic food” Be sure to read the description. Often Thai restaurants and sushi bars will show up in a search for organic, or for raw food, but they might now be what you’re looking for!
- sunfoodtraveler.com
- HappyCow.net (lists all vegetarian, vegan, and raw food restaurants)
meetup.com can also connect you with like-minded people. Enter the zip code of your destination, and plan ahead if you want to connect. They often have files of the good markets, tailgate & farmer’s markets, and organic restaurants.
Katharine Clark, RN 