Important Message from The Joint Chiropractic regarding COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) - Read More

How to Stay Healthy While Travelling

By Krista Elliott

My colleague and friend is off with her family for a Disney World vacation, and I couldn't be more pleased for her. Mind you, my pleasure is mixed with a little bit of envy. Even though Disney World isn't really my thing, it's been a long time since we've gone on a proper family vacation (or even better yet, a vacation sans kids). 

Because I travel so infrequently, the last thing I would want while travelling would be for anybody in my family to get sick. Nothing can put a damper on a much-anticipated vacation like a bad stomach bug or a nasty cold. Everybody's out sightseeing, and you're stuck back in the hotel room trying to figure out the TV remote. 

So how can you illness-proof your trip? There are no guarantees, but these tips will definitely improve your odds. 

Scrub-a-Dub-Dub: When you travel, you're touching a lot of stuff — ATMs, the inside of cabs, handrails, ticket counters, and more. And the chances are pretty high that nobody ever disinfects those surfaces. The chances are also pretty high that the last person to touch them before you has a cold coming on, or didn't wash their hands after using the bathroom. By washing your hands often, you're improving your chances of not spreading germs to your nose, eyes or mouth. 

Sanitize It!: According to the CDC, good old soap and water is more effective at killing or removing germs than hand sanitizers are. However, for those times when soap and water aren't accessible, a good hand santizer can help reduce the number of microbes on your hands. If you've been in a place where you've had to touch a lot of surfaces, and water isn't handy, hand sanitizer could be the only thing standing between you and a ruined vacation. 

I Need a Lot of Personal Space: You get to meet and see a whole new range of people while travelling, which is great. But if they're showing signs of illness, it's best to keep them at least six feet away, so that if they sneeze, they're not spraying microbe-laden moisture droplets all over you. (Eww...) 

Oh, and here is a bonus tip from the lovely folks over at Condé Nast Traveler: Don't use your seat pocket on airplanes, buses, or trains to store anything. Those areas are pretty much never sanitized. And for all we know, the last person sitting there used it to store dirty tissues ... or even a used diaper. (I really, really hope you're not reading this blog on a plane after having hauled your tablet out of the seat pocket.) 

Being sick while on a trip is no fun at all. But all you need to do is to take some sensible precautions, like keeping your hands clean, avoiding sick people, and not drinking water from questionable sources, and your vacation should be a happy and healthy one!

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