For many tourists, flights are booked with one thing in mind: cost. If the price is right, travelers are quick to schedule flights with one or multiple layovers, rather than paying for the more expensive direct flight. The following 5 European airports are proclaimed to be the worst places for flight connections in the continent due to lengthy transfer processes,…
Air travel can be exhausting. We all know that and, in the past, we’ve written about jet lag and ways to try to prevent it. But that exhausted feeling you feel when you land – or when you’re in the air – might actually be mountain sickness. Mountain sickness – or altitude sickness – occurs most often in mountain climbers…
I know we’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating: One of the joys of international travel is sampling native cuisine, no matter where you are in the world. For some with food allergies, trying new and native foods can be difficult, but not impossible. But for other folks, there really is no reason not to dive in and…
Studying abroad is, obviously, about far more than what happens in the classroom. Most Study Abroad program schedules are designed so that students can travel and explore. A Study Abroad experience can be – in fact, should be – life-changing, opening your eyes to art, culture, history and different ways of doing things. If you Study Abroad and don’t get…
At this time of year, many travelers are worried about catching a cold or the flu, but this should not distract them from focusing on the primary traveler issue: avoiding foodborne illness. Foodborne illnesses can strike at any time, putting your travel plans on hold and making you miserable. With a little precaution, you can avoid having your travel ruined…
Sitting for long periods of time while traveling, whether by airplane, train or car, can increase a traveler’s risk for developing a blood clot. Research shows that this low-activity situation and the environmental conditions of a plane increase a person’s risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT). DVT is the formation of blood clots in your veins, usually in the legs…
Traveling often goes hand-in-hand with being a competitive athlete. Whether it’s a professional football player or an endurance runner, traveling before competition and, in some cases, traveling in general, can decrease athletic performance and expose the athlete to health risks. In this two-part series, I’ll address these specific threats: jet lag and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). We all know about,…
Physicians in practice for many years will tell you that upon hearing a diagnosis, the first question that many patients ask is: “Is it serious?” In fact, most people do not really care about what their illness is called, so long as they can expect a quick and total recovery. This is also true for travelers who fall sick or…
Travelers who end up with a cold after taking a flight frequently believe that the air on the plane is to blame for their sickness. According to a recent MSNBC article, however, the real culprit is fellow passengers who are already sick and spread their germs through coughing and sneezing on board. In reality, the air on an airplane is…
Travelers to remote locations with limited or no options for professional medical care often have access to the Internet and thus the ability to seek out web-based tools to diagnose conditions and recommend medical triage. Even those in the comfort of their own homes have made free self-help symptom checkers a popular pastime on the web. How useful are they?…
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