Your Vacation - How to Keep Your Health Without Losing Your Mind

The most overly exercised advice to budding Mexico vacationers is, don’t drink the water—a warning that is commonly shrugged off with a chuckle, but is true; water contamination is the leading cause of intestinal malfunctions on vacation. While sticking to bottled water promises to fix just such an issue, what about other potentially vacation-destroying ailments that can come with foreign travel.

Abstaining from water, directly, is not the only and surest route to keeping healthy. It’s the things that are typically overlooked and never second-guessed that should be a source of concern.

The World Health Organization suggests you reconsider that salad or biting into that raw fruit or vegetable; as with any raw foods, the susceptibility for contamination runs high, and that is especially the case for an area of the world your body has yet to condition its immune system to.

“If you’re in the Four Seasons hotel, then eating the salad is probably not a great risk, says Dr. Mark Wise of Toronto’s Travel Clinic. “But if you’re in the little stall next to the youth hostel, then eating the salad is probably a great risk.”

When it comes to choosing a restaurant, look for one that is busy and attracts the locals. Another factor to consider is your geographic location. If you’re on an island or on the coast, seafood is probably going to be the freshest choice. If you’re inland, the other meats or a vegetarian cuisine is the way to go.

There are also measures that can be taken to ensure your well-being long before you ever step foot on a plane or boat. If you are traveling to someplace exceptionally exotic or third-world, the Public Health Agency of Canada recommends you immunize for a cocktail of illnesses, weeks prior to your trip.

But what about sicknesses that are known and can be anticipated? Catering to a pre-existing medical condition does not have to mean nursing it over your vacation.

“With allergies, there’s no being off-the-cuff,” says Gwen Smith, editor of Allergic Living magazine. “When you’re on vacation, you don’t want your allergies to be the only thing you’re thinking about, but you also don’t want to be sitting there wondering, ‘Okay, 20 minutes from now, am I off to a hospital?’”

A room with its own kitchen is one way to take control, as it allows you to cook if you’re a little food-wary. The most direct route, however, is to simply explain to the chef your condition. And as with any scenario that concerns your food allergies, an EpiPen is a necessary item that should be equipped to your person at all times.

Finally, and most importantly, do not be afraid to try new things. These precautions are merely suggestions to ensure your vacation’s success.