Getting ill might feel inevitable if you travel and manage a busy day during the coming flu and cold season. While the end of the year or occasions crowd the calendar, this means that you are continuous:
- In physical contact with objects that others might touch
- Forgoing or adjusting to your daily activities and eating habits
- Changing your working, sleep, or living standards
While we try different routines that fit us and help us protect ourselves against cold in the office or even at home, it is less common to protect from flu and cold during travel, which might be even more dangerous to your immune system. Failing sick is your fate! But, there are some of the best practices and methods you may try in the travel plans that will keep you safe from cold and flu:
Eliminate touching your mouth, eyes, and nose
Pathogens have to get their way to go inside before they may begin to wreak havoc on your body. We touch different places on our faces so many times daily, so what we do with our hands affects our immunity. You must be mindful of where you are touching your hands. It would be best to understand that you are picking up germs between device cleaning and hand washing hygiene. The best way is to give one hand for daily activities such as pushing elevator buttons, opening doors, giving high fives, and putting change in the parking meter. It will leave the other hand to touch personal activities such as rubbing your eyes or scratching your nose.
Prioritize sleep
It would be best if you take efforts to use rest as a main defence tactic from colds. It would help if you restricted yourself away from the laptop, phone, and social media use so that your body will be prepared for sleep. You should prioritize sleep and keep it in your schedule, and you should avoid those unnecessary activities that will disturb your sleep cycles, such as parties, weddings, and get-togethers.
Skip the sugar and processed foods/drinks found in terminal kiosks and roadside stores
It might be tempting for you to go for muffins, crackers, chocolates, or any other packaged food that you love to eat. But, these food items include high levels of processed sugar. Sugar, most renowned known to cause insulin resistance, results in inflammation and leads to non-alcoholic fatty disease and weight gain. Healthcare professionals such as Dr Ross Pelton and Graham, who are WellnessFX practitioners, warn that if you take sugar in moderate amounts, it suppresses the immune system for 6 to 7 hours, reducing the capability of our body to fight infection or pathogens.
Practice good hand washing hygiene
It might be best if you washed your hands after touching surfaces. That is the immunity booster you should incorporate into your daily lives. Common touchpoints when you travel are:
- Gas station pumps, bins at TSA where individual's shoes go there
- The handrail on a moving sidewalk
- Credit card touch buttons or screens
- Anything on the flight seat that includes buttons, tray table, overhead bins, touch screens
- Armrests while waiting in the terminal
Manage your Stress
Cortisol has also been named a stress hormone. A little amount of cortisol is good and natural for short-term stressors. When your body makes excess cortisol, it becomes a real issue that reduces your immune response. So, make sure that you eliminate caffeinated products and take proper sleep to reduce your cortisol levels. You may work to reduce any vacation stressors and relax with practices such as meditation in the early morning as the cortisols are high at this time. It would help if you took some time alone for yourself every day. Even if it is 10 minutes, it does not matter, but it will help you reset all your everyday challenges. Learning to manage your stress is important for your immune system.
Limit alcohol intake
There are some reasons to restrict your alcohol intake to aid your immune system.
- It would be best if you understood that alcohol affects your sleep. It affects the quality of your sleep badly, and your body cannot take the necessary rest to fight against the cold.
- The average holiday cocktail with mixers and juicers is high in sugar. We understand that sugar affects our immune system badly and suppresses it for 7 hours.
- Alcohol causes dehydration. You should not allow your body to take fluids that affect your healthy digestion and organ function.
- Alcohol reduces the micronutrients that help to keep your immune system strong. It might have adverse immune-related issues.
Consider supplementing probiotics
Probiotics are necessary bacteria present in your gut naturally, and live yeasts and bacteria are good microorganisms.
A few common strains of probiotics linked with gut health are:
- Bifidobacteriabifidum: It helps to prevent pathogenic yeast or bacteria from invading. Also, they increase the absorption of magnesium, calcium, iron, and zinc.
- Lactobacillus acidophilus: The well-recognized probiotic. And most necessary for the health of the small intestine. It aids in enhancing immunity.
