Now that we are free to travel again, and with Easter just around the corner, many of you may have booked a spring holiday abroad or a long weekend in this country. Or perhaps you are finally going on that long-awaited cruise.
When you come to pack your bags, I urge you to keep your digestive health in mind. Tummy problems like diarrhoea, constipation, and indigestion are all-too-common travel companions. A cruise can be the perfect holiday, but cruise ships, with hundreds, even thousands of people in close quarters, can also be a hotbed of germs. You may have read media reports of norovirus on cruise ships. This virus causes a condition called gastroenteritis that irritates your stomach and intestines, often leading to diarrhoea, vomiting, and an increased risk of developing IBS and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. While you can be exposed to norovirus virtually anywhere, it thrives in close quarters like cruise ships because it’s hardy and highly contagious.
If you’re about to head off on a cruise, or any other type of trip, there’s no need to panic. There are precautions you can take to give yourself the best chance of a happy holiday free from tummy troubles.
Travel disrupts many of the body’s natural rhythms, including digestion. Time changes, altered eating schedules, and impaired sleep are all likely culprits, especially if you already have a sensitive gut. Be mindful of horrible bugs guilty of causing diarrhoea, vomiting and in some cases severe dehydration when travelling to areas of high or intermediate risk, including Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Mexico, and South and Central America.
Stomach bugs really take it out of you, and can potentially completely ruin a trip, which is why I put together my Travel Survival Kit – to protect your digestive system and maintain a settled, happy tummy whilst you enjoy new foods and new adventures on your holiday.
The Kit contains 60 Live Bacteria probiotic capsules, 60 Digestive Enzymes tablets, 60 high-strength, odour-controlled Garlic tablets and 6 Tummy Tea pyramids. My advice is to begin taking the supplements in the Kit about a week before you are due to travel. The combination of supplements will help ensure your food is being properly digested, especially if you want to indulge in richer food and you are eating later in the day, as well as reduce uncomfortable gassy bloating, indigestion, reflux and maintain regular bowel movements. They will also help to sterilise your digestive system, preventing any ‘bad’ bugs from getting into the digestive system and causing pain, sickness, and diarrhoea.
I also recommend packing a pot of my activated Charcoal capsules to have on hand if you do come down with a stomach bug, or if you feel a bit ‘off’.
The activated charcoal can absorb the bacteria responsible for causing stomach bugs (the same way it is used to absorb poisons). Toxins that come into contact with activated charcoal bind to it, which prevents them from being absorbed in the body. Activated charcoal is not digested. Instead, it goes directly to the colon where it is eliminated in the stool, along with the harmful bacteria, viruses, and toxins that are attached to it.
Activated charcoal is most effective when taken within 1 hour of experiencing symptoms of food poisoning or a stomach virus. During this time, the toxins are still primarily in the stomach and can be adsorbed by the activated charcoal before it is absorbed and spreads throughout the body.
So if you’ve eaten questionable food, drunk contaminated water, not been as fastidious as you should have been with personal hygiene, such as hand washing, and begin to feel the symptoms of a stomach bug such as vomiting, painful cramps and diarrhoea, take 3 Charcoal capsules half an hour before and after meals, until symptoms subside.
All the supplements in the Travel Survival Kit are made in the UK and are vegan and gluten-free. The Kit comes with full, simple instructions.
Read how the Travel Survival Kit made a big difference to Julie’s holiday:
If you purchase one of my Kits, I’d love to hear how you get on with the supplements. Perhaps when you’re back from your holiday, you could drop me a line and let me know how you got on.
