Health Matters

Talk to your doctor. Well, duh-uh! When preparing for ANY kind of travel, it's always best to consult your primary care physician well in advance. This is even more critical with overseas travel, especially in developing nations or in rural or wilderness areas anywhere (even in the U.S.). There may be special immunizations, prophylactics, or precautions your physician will recommend. I recommend to those in the St. Louis area to visit the Travel Health Clinic at DePaul Health Center --tell 'em I sent you!

Surf the web. Click here for my list of Travel Health Links to get you started.

Get connected. Join the International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers, which is absolutely FREE*. They will send you a list of available publications on current travel health issues and really outstanding advice. They also sell, at cost, certain hard to find items like mosquito nets, and so on. Your membership includes a listing of climate data, health tips, recommended vaccinations, etc., which will help you and your physician (my doc, Eddie Paulk, loves their lists) determine what's best for you. You'll also get a list of physicians who have agreed to a set (low) price for treating foreign travelers. It's one of the best deals I've seen! (Hey, come on --for all this, you'll feel guilty if you don't donate something.)

Call your health insurer. Most health insurance plans have all kinds of restrictions on coverage outside of your home town. Call them ahead of time to see what they cover and what they don't --and HOW to claim coverage when you are out of town. Actually, it's best to get their answer in writing. If you think you need additional travel health insurance, do that well in advance of your trip.

Bring spare contacts and glasses. If you want to actually be able to see while you travel, bring one (or two) spare pairs of prescription glasses or contacts. According to Murphy's Law, you WILL lose them if you don't have spares with you. Don't have spares and need some quick? Try Lens Express

Motion sickness. Motion sickness makes a great trip not so much fun or you or others around you (especially if you vomit all over them). So here are some TESTED hints:

What causes motion sickness? There are probably a variety of factors, but the main thing is that the motion detector in your head gets confused and makes you feel ill. The gravity and motion sensor in your inner ears feed information to the motion detector in your brain that is different than the motion being detected by your eyes. The information from the stretch/tension sensors in your muscles are probably putting in their two cents, as well. So anything you can do to make sure that your eyes aren't fooling your head into thinking its still when its really moving will help.

Don't read. Look out to the horizon and don't stay focused on any one thing for very long. (See what causes motion sickness above.)

Eat something. Before and during travel. Not a lot. Just enough to keep your stomach working on something. If your stomach has nothing to do, it will make your motion sickness worse.

Try ginger. Ginger candy, ginger cookies, ginger tabs or capsules --all of these help minimize motion sickness without the use of drugs. And unlike motion-sickness drugs, they can be taken after you start to feel ill--and they won't make you drowsy. Find some ginger!

Have a bag handy. That's why they put them in the seat pocket in front of you in the airplane. Check for one BEFORE you feel ill. It's like having an umbrella--just having one handy makes it less likely that you'll have to use it (a basic principle of the cosmos). When you leave the plane, take a couple of those bags with you--and have them handy in the tour bus, train, car, ferry, ferris wheel, or whatever makes you sick.

Protect against sun damage. UV radiation from sunlight, even on "soft" misty days in Ireland or on the chilly slopes of Kilimanjaro, can put you at risk of skin cancer, cause painful burns, and increase your risk of cataracts. To protect exposed areas of the skin, use an approved s . To protect your eyes, use good quality UV-rated sunglasses such as those available from Lens Express

Exercise and meditation. Depending on the type of trip you are on, you may find yourself less active than usual. For example, game drives can be tiring but they don't really keep all your muscles in shape. Also, you might find that you need to just chill out for a while during a particularly active trip. There are many kinds of exercise you can do in the cramped quarters of your lodge or hotel room. I sometimes do yoga to get both exercise AND meditation in! Here's a nifty book that shows simple yoga positions (it is actually written for children!) patterned after different safari animals: A Yoga Parade of Animals . I recommend yoga classes from my friend Amy at SCC's Phys Ed department, email her at yogaamy@inlink.com .