Top Tips For Healthy International Travel
Look after your health when you travel with these top tips.
Looking after your health when traveling is mostly a matter of common sense. You are the best person to know what your needs are, so be proactive about making sure they are met, rather than putting your health at risk. International travel can be a breeze with a bit of forward planning.
Essential Medications
Make a list of all your essential medications - brand names, generic names, dosage and so on. This will help to remind you of what you need to take with you and will also be useful if anything is lost. No doctor is going to just hand you your heart pills unless you can be specific about what you need. Keep the contact details for your doctor with that list.
First Aid
Take a first aid kit with your essential medicines, as well as decongestants, antihistamines, pain killers, cold remedies, antibiotic cream, sunscreen, wet wipes and other essentials. Tweezers, scissors and a pocket knife are also useful, but you’ll have to check in the items that are not allowed in hand baggage. Otherwise, keep the other items with you in case you need them when you arrive.
Get Those Shots
Check vaccination requirements for the country you are visiting and get your shots. Believe me, you don’t want to end up with malaria, typhoid or yellow fever. It’s also worth checking out the likelihood of catching something like dengue fever - it can take months to recover from this energy sapping illness; or it could be fatal.
Insurance Needs
Get good travel insurance. If something happens, you don’t want to worry about taking out a mortgage to cover your extra medical bills. Make sure your policy covers you for medical care abroad - and for flying back home if you need to. Make sure you have the emergency contact number handy.
Dietary Requirements
If you have special dietary needs, most travel industry professionals will accommodate these, provided they know in advance. Planning ahead is your best bet here, and that goes for handling accessibility issues too.
Be careful about what you eat and drink. Eating what a friend of mine calls ’street meat’ could result in stomach upsets and diarrhea. Instead, go for hot, well cooked meals and bottled drinks to minimize the chance of illness.
Follow these tips and you will have taken the first steps to looking after your health when traveling internationally and - except for vaccinations - they work for traveling at home too.
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Tags: first aid, health, international travel, Travel Tips
