Holiday health - Healthy Life Essex

Holiday health the natural way

It can be hard to decide what health products to take on holiday, especially if what you seek is natural travel care – Suzi Hawkins helps to find a pathway through the jungle of information and myths.

My first suggestion would be to get a homeopathic travel kit. Buy it well in advance and test some of the remedies. There are many kits available so get one that is suitable for your destination.

If you are going somewhere hot and humid in search of sun and sea, I’ve listed a few things you may like to think about throwing into your suitcase along with the suntan lotion and flippers:

Always invest in a good skin protector. This is vital as your first line of defence. We have found BugGuard to be excellent. These Neem products state that they are safe to use on infants. Citronella (Mosiguard) is also another insect repellent that many have found to be successful. A Tea Tree liquid base called ‘Walkabout’ is also a good choice.

Arnica cream or lotion is great for bruises, but not on broken skin. It can also be used in homeopathic potency for jet lag. Hypercal creams and lotions can be used for general cuts, sores and puncture wounds, or Neem creams as they have an anti-microbial action. I have found ‘First Aid Skin Spray’ to be pretty amazing for burns and cuts. Good quality Lavender Oil is very soothing for sunburn. Of course, the most important thing is not to get sunburnt in the first place. Avoid sun tan lotions that are full of petrochemical and plastic derivatives. Very good natural sun screening products are available. Ask your local health shop for their advice.

Antioxidants containing a high level of the Carotenes will help the skin to resist burning. Start taking them around a month before your holiday to absorb into your skin, and build up another line of protection.

Garlic is a great stand by. If I were back-packing the globe I wouldn’t be without it. You want the raw smelly type for it to be most effective. It is known for its cleansing effects on the digestive system. Insects don’t like it, but neither do some people!!

Artemisia is a great herb and if you aren’t keen on garlic it is a pretty good alternative. I made sure that my children had this in their back-packs when they went travelling around the world.

If inadequate hygiene might be a problem, take a good quality probiotic that does not need to be refrigerated. It can help support healthy bacterial flora.

Clean water is particularly important. Bottled water in some countries might not be mineral or spring water quality. Water quality is not standardised outside Europe and could contain pathogens. Don’t take ice cubes in your drinks unless they are made with reversed osmosis, or mineral water from a safe source. A good friend of mine nearly died some years ago when staying in a five star hotel at a Mexican seaside resort. All he did was to take ice cubes in his cocktails and he ended up with Cholera and was left fighting for his life.

DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) associated with long haul flights has been on the increase. There are some excellent natural proteolytic enzymes that can be used to keep the blood thin which seem to work very well, but you need to make sure there are no contraindications e.g. if you are on Aspirin, or on any other blood thinning drugs. Do consult your health care professional.

I hope this has given you some ideas for a more healthy trouble free holiday. But do make sure that whatever you use can be backed up by years of historical use for the purpose it claims, or that tests have been carried out to confirm that the product does what it says it does.

Enjoy your holiday.

Suzi Hawkins, LCHom; MHMA; MARH; MABCH; MCAHyp; MHA; MHS(Acc);
Suzi has been involved in complementary medicine since the mid 1970’s and is a: Homeopath; Hypnotherapist; Dream Therapist; Body Balancer; LifePlan Coach and Writer.