Archive for the ‘Travel Tips’ Category

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Chronic Jet Lag Can Impair Memory and Learning: What’s the Remedy?

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 by

Traveling a long distances for the holidays?  A recent study at the University of California, Berkeley, found that chronic jet lag causes memory loss and learning problems.  Psychologists conducted a trial that subjected hamsters to 6-hour time shifts twice a week for four weeks and then compared the jet-lagged hamsters’ performance on learning and memory tasks to a control group.  The results showed that the jet-lagged hamsters had more trouble with their tasks during the second half of the jet lag period and for more than a month after returning to their normal schedules.

The researchers also found that the hamsters had persistent changes in the part of the brain that controls memory processing, the hippocampus.  As Lance Kriegsfeld, an associate professor of psychology, explained “[jet lag] leads to a reduction in the number of neurons that are added to the adult brain and these new neurons are critical for the formation of certain types of new memories.”  Hamster or human, for this holiday season and beyond, Kriegsfeld suggests that the best way to beat short-term jet lag effects is to allow for one full day of recovery for every hour shift in the time zone you’ve experienced.

Photo by visual.dichotomy.

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Vegans Abroad: Bring Your Ingenuity Along

Thursday, September 30th, 2010 by

In many parts of the world, declaring yourself to be a vegetarian, much less a vegan, is often met with anything from well-meaning curiosity to complete disbelief.  In many developing countries where starch is a staple and meat is traditionally somewhat of a luxury, the idea that someone would just prefer not to eat meat, either for ethical or dietary reasons, usually comes as a bit of a shock.  Your hosts may jump to the conclusion that you are sick (either physically or in the head) or that you are turning your nose up at their local cuisine, so it is important to handle the matter delicately. 

If you are a strict vegan, it can be a challenge to find animal-free sources of protein while abroad.  Of course, you may find a lot of options in Asian countries where soy is a familiar ingredient.  Coffee with soy milk, called “soya milk” in the UK, is widely available through the Starbucks chain.  You may end up spending a lot of time in the hotel bar – not for the drinks, but for the bowls of nuts!

In Latin America, although rice and beans are traditional staples, the beans may be prepared with meat products – it’s not unusual to find a pig’s ear floating in the traditional Brazilian feijoada (bean stew). But it is also common to find beans prepared with just water and salt.   I have admittedly found myself eating a lot of lettuce and French fries in some locations, so I tend to bring along my share of packaged protein bars to tide me over.  There are also websites like vegdining.com and happycow.net which have listings of restaurants with vegetarian or vegan options. My advice is to confirm the information carefully. Unfortunately, given that omnivores vastly outnumber vegetarians and vegans, these specialty restaurants do not always stay in business.

I recently found a vegan blogger who is traveling to Istanbul and providing vegan travel tips on the way; she also has some tips on using vegan foods to remedy some of the more common travel maladies. Let us know if you have some tips on how to manage a vegan diet in the four corners of the world.  Also, check out our earlier post on resources for vegetarians which included a link to the International Vegetarian Union.

Photo by victoriafee.

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Posted in Destinations, Food and Diet, Travel Tips | Comments »

Securing Children in Cars and Planes: the NTSB Advocates for Kids

Friday, September 24th, 2010 by

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has declared this week “Child Passenger Safety Week.”  The main goal of this event is to raise awareness of the importance of having the right safety seats for children who are passengers in cars. To this end, the NHTSA is promoting a National Seat Check on Saturday so parents and guardians can have an expert ensure that their child is in the correct type of seat and that it is installed properly. If you are not sure what type of seat is considered safe for children, check out this chart that details the varying state child seat safety laws.

Each year millions of children are passengers in planes, yet the guidelines for keeping them safe in the air are not as clear as they are for the road.  Children under the age of two are not required to have their own seat when flying. This means the adult they are traveling with is safely buckled into a seat, but the child’s safety is predicated on the strength of the person holding her.  In a piece published on MSNBC.com this week, Nora Marshall of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) asks this question of parents, “Why wouldn’t you want your child to be as well protected as you are?”

Unfortunately, the guidelines for protecting the children on airplanes are not determined by the NTSB, but by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Whereas the FAA’s stance is that children are safer in an approved child restraint system, they do not require that children be secured during air travel.   The NTSB will be hosting a live webcast, Child Passenger Safety in the Air and in Automobiles, on their website on December 9th.  This forum will educate the public and advocate for the protection of children as they travel on the road or in the air.

Do you think air safety guidelines should be given more consideration? We’d love to hear your comments.

Photo by Ma1974.

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Posted in Travel Tips, Traveling with Children | Comments »

Pardonnez-moi, is that a bump on your head?

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 by

From one of my favorite sites, Book of Odds, comes an interesting article about Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS), a very rare case of a person’s accent or language skills changing suddenly due to head trauma, strokes or even severe migraines. 

The stories are disturbing and somewhat amusing to those not affected — a Croatian girl waking up from a coma no longer able to speak in her native tongue but able to speak fluently in a language she had only just started to study, or someone from England waking up to speak with a French accent.

How does this relate to healthy travel? you might ask.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to trigger these changes on command when arriving at a destination?  Of course, this is a stretch even for someone who believes in the vast potential of stem cell research. 

Book of Odds estimates the chances of suffering from FAS in a given year are approximately 1 in 6 billion, so for now, intrepid travelers should rely on the growing number of translation applications, tools or guides designed for smart phones.  Which ones have you used, and how did they work?

Photo by gcbb.

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Mountainous Melanoma! Elevated Erythema! It’s High Altitude Sunburn!

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 by

Beach season may be drawing to a close in the Northern Hemisphere, but it’s not too late to get a really nasty sunburn, especially if you’re traveling to a high altitude area.  A study conducted by the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at the New York University School of Medicine suggests an approximate 8 to 10 percent increase in ultraviolet intensity for each 1,000 feet of elevation across the studied altitudes. UV-B intensity decreases as light moving toward the Earth is scattered, reflected and/or absorbed. The higher the altitude, the more intense the UV-B light exposure can damage unprotected skin.

If you are hiking at 8,500 feet, you are exposed to almost 60% more sun than you would be at the beach. It’s no surprise, then, that at higher elevations, people who normally tolerate the sun well, may not, and people who burn easily at the beach are at severe risk. In less than twenty minutes, fair-skinned people may notice their skin becoming red and sore, even if they are a lightly shaded by trees overhead. Reflected light from snow or water aggravates the situation even more, as many vacationing skiers have found to their chagrin.

With the increased exposure to UV-B, the expected annual non-melanoma skin cancer rate for year-round residents at 8,500 feet is estimated to be approximately 115 percent greater than those living at sea level at the same latitude.

So it’s not just leisure travelers who need to take precautions. Expats should know that living at high altitudes and suffering repeated sunburns can have lasting effects. The National Institutes of Health reminds us that living at high altitudes is a definite risk factor for melanoma, or skin cancer.

Take extra precautions when traveling or living at elevations significantly higher than sea level. Be sure to pack sunscreen (SPF 70!), and apply it often and liberally. And don’t forget to pack your sunglasses—intense sunlight is damaging to the eyes too. More on this important issue later.

Author: Melissa Haertsch
Melissa Haertsch, a guest contributor to the Healthy Travel blog, is a freelance writer specializing in healthcare, travel and fine food. She favors outdoor-related journeys, which she launches from her home in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania.

Photo by Sicran.

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Rabies: Little Critters Carry Big Diseases

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 by

Although rabies is rare in the U.S., it is still a risk in both rural and urban areas.  A recent New York Times article, Taking the ‘Wild’ in Wildlife Seriously, reminds us that rabies can occur anywhere and is a very real threat to health and safety.

Outside the U.S., rabies is even more common.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 55,000 people die of rabies each year; 95% of these fatal cases occur in Asia and Africa.

Rabies is most often transmitted to humans through a bite from an infected animal. Simply petting or being licked by an infected animal does not generally cause disease. Modern rabies therapy has an extremely high success rate, so it is imperative to get help immediately if bitten, especially because once the flu-like clinical signs of rabies develop in a human, the disease is almost always fatal.

Travelers should be aware of animals wherever they are, particularly those behaving with unusual boldness around humans.  Because any animal – wild or domestic – can pose a threat, contact with any unfamiliar ones should be avoided. 

Although the rabies vaccine is not necessary for most travelers, it is available for high-risk individuals such as field biologists who expect to be handling animals.  It may also be appropriate for those traveling in areas where rabies is still a problem in domestic animals and where prophylactic care may not be readily available, such as for hikers exploring remote rural areas.  If you’re not sure whether you need the vaccine, check out the CDC recommendations for getting the rabies vaccination before traveling.

Author: Melissa Haertsch
Melissa Haertsch, a guest contributor to the Healthy Travel blog, is a freelance writer specializing in healthcare, travel and fine food. She favors outdoor-related journeys, which she launches from her home in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania.

Photo by bartmaguire

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Posted in Travel Tips | 2 Comments »

U.S. Passport Fees to Increase on July 13th

Thursday, July 8th, 2010 by

Fees for U.S. Passports increase substantially in less than a week.  Currently, adult fees for the standard Passport Book are $100 for a new one and $75 for renewals.  These fees rise to $135 and $110, respectively.  For children the increases are also large.  Current fees are $85 for new passports or renewals; this will go up to $105.

Some other fees are also going up or are being charged for the first time – additional pages for your book used to be free but are now $82, and the file search fee has gone up from $60 to $150.  The file search is required when an applicant is unable to present proof of citizenship.

All of the details can be found at the U.S. Department of State’s web site – new fees and current rates.

We put together a simple chart to highlight the changes (see below). 

The State Department’s main page for passports can answer all of your questions about passports – when you need one, how to get one fast, what to do when you lose one, etc.  Get prepared for your next fun, international trip and save some money by doing it this week!

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Posted in News and Trends, Travel Tips | 2 Comments »

Flight Risk: Airline Food

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 by

Some people may have been disappointed when many airlines stopped serving meals on flights. However, in light of a new report from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), this might be good news.

The FDA conducted inspections at three large airline caterers, and the results showed that in some of their kitchens the food had been handled and stored improperly, some conditions were less than sanitary and some locations were lacking in proper pest control. 

Now that attention is being paid to the matter, conditions will likely improve. But in the meantime, you might want to consider buying your meal in the airport and carrying it on board with you.

Have you had a bad experience with airline food? If so, please share your story with us.

Photo by ReneS

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Preparing for Mancation (or just Vacation)

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 by

As we start thinking about summer vacation plans (ok, I am a little behind schedule here), I thought it might be helpful to post some links to a couple of interesting articles I read recently.

The first introduced me to the word “mancation,” a term that is new to me, but supposedly coined back in 2002.  My first reaction to the Wall Street Journal article, Guys Just Want to Have Fun, by Sue Shellenbarger, was wondering how many people could actually take an eight-week long cross-country cycling trip and then, what do these people do for a living.

In addition to the normal golfing and fishing trips, the column focused on the more extreme activities that men sometimes pursue – things like simulated dog-fighting in vintage airplanes or shark-diving expeditions.  Here at the Healthy Travel Blog we often write about the risks that travelers may encounter during standard vacations. But mancations offer a whole new realm of danger and risk. What are travelers doing to take precautions against possibly bad outcomes?  More preparation, better knowledge of nearby medical facilities and a more cautious, conservative approach to post-injury care may mean the difference between life and death.  As a person who used to take much greater physical risks, I think that in some cases it was only luck that saved me from more disastrous results.  My takeaway was this: have fun, know your limits and be prepared.

And now for something completely different, as they used to say on Monty Python’s Flying Circus (although originally used by Christopher Trace on the BBC children’s program, Blue Peter):  the second article that caught my eye was not news to me but was a reminder and a good summary of the steps that one can take to economically stay in touch when traveling internationally.  In Tips for Using Your Cellphone Abroad, Jennifer Saranow Schultz of the New York Times helps travelers navigate the confusing world of wireless carriers.

Let us know about your mancations, or even your gender-agnostic extreme vacations and also about your experiences with using your cell phone internationally.  For an extra bonus, tell me how these two articles are connected.  Hint: the answer is in the prior sentence.

Photo by g-na.

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Posted in Travel Tips, Traveling Responsibly | 1 Comment »

Mosquitoes — Delivering Dengue, Malaria and Chikungunya

Friday, June 18th, 2010 by

Mosquitoes continue to do the dirty work of spreading dengue fever, malaria and chikungunya virus to people in clustered areas around the world. The rainy seasons and the weather patterns of the past six months have enabled the mosquitoes to breed and spread the viruses that can leave the recipients extremely ill or even dead.

Venezuela seems to be the hardest hit country at this point. They reported 22,880 cases of malaria and 38,174 cases of dengue fever in the past five months.   

The dengue outbreak in Sri Lanka has been so severe that in the capital, Colombo, the Ministry of Health is inspecting homes and public buildings for possible mosquito breeding grounds and spraying pesticides in at-risk areas. 

Because of the monsoon rains that poured down throughout India’s summer (March to May), several cases of dengue and chikungunya are being reported from there.  Also, numerous cases of chikungunya are being reported from Malaysia, Thailand and the French island of Reunion.

If you are traveling to any of these areas, protect yourself from mosquitoes! For destination or disease specific information, there are plenty of resources available on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

Photo by Marshall Astor.

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Posted in Malaria, Travel Tips | 1 Comment »

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