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Michael Hartung, editor of Healthy Travel Blog, serves as head of Product Development at HTH Worldwide. Mike is responsible for all product strategy and development for the company. Mike has over twenty years of successful product innovation to his credit. He has played a senior management role in three start-up companies and has built complex organizations in rapid growth environments. Prior to joining HTH in 2000, he served as President of U.S. Healthcare’s Workers Comp Advantage subsidiary, which he co-founded with Angelo Masciantonio. Mike has also served in senior roles at Aon Consulting, Vantage Health Partners and Managed Health Care Services. Mike earned an M.B.A. from New York University, an M.A. from Duke University and a B.A. from Carleton College.

Travel Bulletin Mexico: Drug War Toll Keeps Rising

Monday, January 23rd, 2012 by

A look back at the violence in Mexico last year finds drug war fatalities increasing 11% over 2010, raising the prospect that there is no end in sight after five years of war and nearly 50,000 dead. Of course, the worst violence is centered in a few provinces (see map). Visitors to Mexico should know that the casualties are heavily concentrated in states that border the U.S.: Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Sonora and Tamaulipas. Certain central/Pacific states are also the site of frequent bloodshed: Durango, Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan and Sinaloa. There are sixteen states where numbers are considerably lower, especially Yucatan, where resorts continue to offer deals to attract those who look beyond the headlines and understand where the risks truly lie.

The states where most of the conflict takes place, marked in red.

Map courtesy of Hpav7.

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Resolve to Have a Healthy New Year: Lessons on Longevity from Abroad

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011 by

You don’t have to look far to find self-improvement tips, but I wanted an international perspective, so I dug back into The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner, who captures certain secrets of longevity from natives of Sardinia, Okinawa and Costa Rica. Despite being separated by thousands of miles, these distinct and ancient cultures are based on very similar, simple principles that can be distilled into resolutions:

  • Wake up with a plan–in Okinawa it’s an ikigai, in Costa Rica a plan de vida. Start each day with a clearly articulated purpose.
  • Include the grandparents—put three generations of family at the center of life to broaden perspective and pass down traditions and meaning.
  • Exercise outside—the combination of sunshine and activity that raises cardiovascular function is an unbeatable way to lift your spirits.
  • Make meat a special occasion—whether it’s lamb in Sardinia, pork in Okinawa or chicken in Costa Rica, it’s traditional to eat meat once or twice a week and for celebrations.

Of course, there is also plenty of local color when it comes to longevity tips. If these cultures ring in the New Year with a favorite tonic, here are the beverages of choice:

  • Sardinia—red wine (Cannonau) or goat’s milk
  • Okinawa—miso soup
  • Costa Rica—hard water (full of minerals)

As you raise your glass, you may want to borrow from the Italians and say “Cent ‘anni!”–shorthand for “May you live 100 years!”

Photo by davidgordillo.

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A Healthy Approach to Travel: Don’t Escape, Set Goals, Be Balanced

Thursday, December 15th, 2011 by

A recent column by the Frugal Traveler compiled some of the most recent thinking and advice from those who study travel and travelers for a living. Researchers and thinkers at the University of Wollongong, Texas A&M and Virginia Tech look a little deeper than most of us in the quest to understand how traveling improves the quality of life. Their conclusions can be distilled to few important principles that rest on the healthy virtues of thinking positively and finding balance in your life. Here they are in a nutshell:

1) Don’t view travel purely as an escape; set out on your journey with goals for self-improvement; it’s okay to get away from it all, but the most rewarding travel also affords the chance to reflect on your shortcomings and to actively address them.

2) Don’t idealize the experience in advance; one of the most enduring lessons travelers learn is that keeping your expectations realistic is the best way to open up to daily surprises – delights abound and even disasters produce fond memories. Go abroad with your eyes wide open and in possession of unbiased information about your destination and accommodations. You can get a dose of reality by talking to friends and family who have been there before and by going to web sites you trust. We recommend AFAR, NetGlobers, and World Nomads.

3) Know what’s important to you; don’t rely on ranking schemes — they always rely on somebody else’s value system or the sentiment of a crowd. Sift through the specific comments that travelers post online until you find the observations that hit a chord. It might be the quality of light and air in a quiet locale that you are really seeking instead of a four-star restaurant.

4) Seek balance.  If your life is predictable, search out spontaneity; if it’s frantic, find serenity. Deep down we are all hankering to fill in the spaces in our lives and create a whole person. Travel is the ideal way to fill the gaps.

5) Share your experience and accomplishments. Round out your travels by recounting for friends (or even complete strangers) the goals you achieved, the surprises you’ll never forget, the balance and harmony you found.

Thanks to the Frugal Traveler for pointing the way to a mindset primed for discovery and prepared for deep appreciation.

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Malaria Vaccine Shows Promise in Children: Worldwide Fight Gaining Ground

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 by

A multi-year investment of $500 million USD by the Gates Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline and the U.S. government has yielded partial success in the search for a malaria vaccine. A recent report in the Wall Street Journal relays the results of a clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicating that three doses of the vaccine can cut the risk of developing malaria in half for African children ages five to seventeen months. Researchers are encouraged to see a vaccine protect against the malaria parasite, but say further work is needed to establish its true efficacy. The Gates Foundation has spent $1.75 billion so far in its quest to eradicate the disease and continues to pursue a parallel approach—a “transmission blocking” vaccine—that is believed to be the key to ultimate success.

The worldwide fight against malaria appears to be gaining ground. According to the World Health Organization, malaria killed 781,000 people in 2009, down 20% from 2000, and an analysis by the University of California, San Francisco indicates that some twenty countries are in the process of eliminating malaria (map below). For those planning to travel to subtropics, The Centers for Disease Control has published an interactive map of malaria risk that is the most detailed and useful I have seen to date.

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Best 2012 Destinations: National Geographic Finds Something for Everyone

Thursday, November 17th, 2011 by

If you are planning your next international trip, it will likely be a 2012 event. In anticipation, National Geographic Traveler magazine has tapped twenty destinations as Best of the World 2012. There’s something for everyone, and they all hold promise for improving mind, body and spirit for those who make the trip. You can visit the picture gallery online to be inspired. I took the liberty of classifying the destinations as a way to highlight and summarize the experiences that await you. It’s a terrific list.

Hitting Healthy Travel Blog Themes
Colombia–Ciudad Perdida:  Hiking
Greece–Kardamili:  Slow Tourism
Panama– Coiba National Park:  Eco-tourism
Peru –Lima:  Mistura food festival
Rwanda/Congo–Virunga:  Volcanoes
Sri Lanka– Nuwara Eliya:  New UNESCO World Heritage site

Rebirth
Germany—Dresden:  Historic city center rebuilt
Northern Ireland—Belfast:  Titanic quarter
United States—Pittsburgh: Sustainable design

Over the Top?
Croatia—Istria:  Romance
Oman—Muscat:  Luxury
Thailand—Koh Lipe:  Island paradise

Cultural Discoveries
Guatemala—Chichicastenango:  Mayan
Spain—Girona:  Catalan 

Rugged Outdoors
Iceland—Snaefellsnes Peninsula: Primeval
Mongolia—Hovsgol:  Recreational taiga
New Zealand—Rotorua:  Geothermal

Familiar But Special
Canada—Muskoka: Lake cottages
United Kingdom—London: Olympics
United States—Sonoma: More than wine

Have you visited any of these locations? Are there any destinations you would recommend?

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Heart-healthy diet: It’s not East or West; It’s Raw Fruit and Vegetables

Monday, October 31st, 2011 by

There’s been plenty of ink spilled on the virtues of oriental eating habits when compared to western dietary habits. Recently, Time Magazine raised the question, “Can Eating Fruits and Veggies Outwit Bad Heart Genes?” Tofu, leafy vegetables, low sugar and soy sauce have the presumed upper hand over meat, eggs, fried and salty dishes and dessert. Now a newly published study led by Canadian researchers has arrived at an unequivocal conclusion: inherited risk of heart disease “appears to be modified by a prudent diet high in raw vegetables and fruits.”

The scientists surveyed tens of thousands of people with a genetic disposition toward heart disease in 52 countries and grouped them into three diet groups: western, oriental and prudent, which featured a large intake of raw fruits and vegetables. They concluded that those who practiced a prudent diet were able to counteract the effects of their genetic heart risk factors. The oriental diet did not perform a similar feat for the subjects under study. Those of you abroad with a family history of heart disease can take some comfort in a scientifically-grounded dietary strategy: the French call it “crudite”. 

Photo by tiexano.

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Travel Bulletin China: New Polio Outbreak, CDC Recommends Vaccination for All Travelers

Friday, September 30th, 2011 by

The Centers for Disease Control have issued an outbreak notice that cases of polio have been reported in China for the first time in more than ten years. The CDC is recommending that travelers to all parts of China be up-to-date on the polio vaccine. Use the link above to learn more about how to protect yourself.

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Long-distance Hiking without Camping: The Hut-to-Hut Experience

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 by

A recent article in Afar magazine extols the virtues of leaving the tent behind to hike hut-to-hut through some of the most spectacular country all around the world. I’ve just returned from one such adventure—a six day sojourn through the High Sierra camps of Yosemite—and I heartily concur. Here’s the winning formula: you pack lightly (maximum 20 pounds versus the 40 pounds most backpackers shoulder), wend your way through forests and alpine meadows, past waterfalls, crystal clear lakes and stunning mountain peaks to spend the evening in communal lodgings where you dine with gusto on large servings of delicious local fare. Afterwards, you crawl gratefully into a rustic bed rather than trying to sleep atop the lumps beneath your tent and sleeping bag. I logged 65 miles and came back refreshed, invigorated and ready to research my next hut-to-hut expedition.

Afar magazine’s author Kelly Lack highlights six such trips, suggesting the Mont Blanc trail across three countries in the Alps, an approach to the Himalayas through the Kumaoni foothills of India, an excursion into Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains, a trek across New Zealand’s Queen Charlotte track, a route through Oregon’s Rogue River Wilderness and passage through Peru on the Andean Salkantay trail. Some of these trips include guides, and prices range from $700 (Yosemite, six days unguided) to $3,175 (Mont Blanc, 12 days, guided) per person. Have you hiked hut-to-hut? You can join the conversation here or at Afar’s social space, where other hut-to-hut options are shared.

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Fight Against Dengue Enlists Genetic Engineers

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 by

Recent bulletins carry news of dengue fever on the rise in Panama, Pakistan and the Bahamas. Add these destinations to those mapped by the Centers for Disease Control, including Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Vietnam, Australia, Thailand, the Caribbean and the Philippines, and it’s clear dengue is spreading at an alarming pace throughout the tropics and subtropics. How are we fighting back?

Controlling dengue is largely an exercise in combating the mosquito species Aedes aegypti, which transmits the viral disease to over 50 million people per year and is becoming resistant to pesticides. Now New Scientist magazine is reporting that Oxford, England-based Oxitec, Ltd. is applying its genetic engineering expertise in field trials in the Caribbean, Malaysia and Brazil to reduce mosquito populations. Oxitec has created a disruptive strain of A. aegypti by modifying the genome to include genes that kick in after reproduction to kill the mosquito in the pupa stage. Genetically modified insects have been released into wild, and trials have been encouraging. Now the company has also engineered flightless females among the modified population, which are released to maximize the odds that the “killer males” will mate only with unmodified females and thereby cut an even wider swath.

Critics point out that genetic modification can lead to both intended and unintended consequences. It will pay to keep an eye on this experiment both as a weapon against a growing scourge and as an index of whether these tactics will prove to be safe over the long-term. 

Photo by Curtis Palmer.

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Zen and the High Art of Sleeping On a Plane

Thursday, August 25th, 2011 by

I noted with pleasure a recent post by Virginia Heffernanthat reveals her yearning for the ability to catch a sound nap on board a plane. After all, a refreshing nap has plenty of positive health benefits. Unfortunately, there are lots of physical obstacles—cramped quarters, aisle traffic, public address announcements, turbulence—not to mention the cognitive strain of reconciling the banal proceedings inside the cabin with the unlikely fact of traveling at 500 miles per hour at 35,000 feet. I find sheer fatigue (and abstention from alcohol) is the best sleep inducement, but at least one reader suggested a routine that includes 1) avoiding an aisle seat, 2) covering neck or lap with a scarf or fleece (to produce blanket memory), and 3) repeating a positive thought as a mantra with eyes closed. And, oh yes, “vigil sleep”—the state of drowsiness with “one eye open” doesn’t count. I went through a phase where I would fall into a deep sleep only to startle myself awake with the vivid image of hanging suspended above the Atlantic in a tiny tube and wondering “how did I get here?” I guess I still have a long way to go before I lose my self-consciousness and gain perfect knowledge.

Are you able to meditate on a plane?

Photo by floralbrigades.

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