Even before the Nov­el Coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) reared its ugly head to dis­rupt all our love­ly trav­el plans, trav­el­ing was a dirty busi­ness. Yes, you know there are those of us who don’t wash their hands after going to the bath­room, kids who slob­ber all over their hands and touch every­thing in sight (total­ly nor­mal but.…)  and peo­ple who sneeze with­out cov­er­ing their mouths. Why, you might ask your­self, don’t they do that? I won­der that too and can’t decide if it’s a cul­tur­al thing or a bad man­ners thing but the real­i­ty is it does­n’t real­ly mat­ter. I just have to inte­grate that real­i­ty into my trav­el plans and I’ve put togeth­er a list of how my fam­i­ly and I approach trav­el in places like air­planes and trains where the com­mon areas — and the seat where you’ll be inhal­ing every pos­si­ble pathogen for hours — has­n’t had the amount of clean­ing that would be required to actu­al­ly get the area clean.

 

 

 

On The Plane

Spray and Wipe with Essential Oils

Stud­ies have shown the dirt­i­est parts of an air­plane aren’t the bath­rooms! They are the trays, head­rests and back­seat pock­ets you’ve been using impru­dent­ly your whole life.

So that’s what we focus on. That, plus the arm­rests and met­al seat-belt buckles.

When I start­ed to trav­el more, I bought a ready-made holis­tic trav­el essen­tials kit that I found in an arti­san gift shop full of hand-made prod­ucts. It had a tea tree and laven­der oils spray, a roll-on headache relief com­bo and acupunc­ture mag­nets. But I’ve run-out of all the oils and looked online to replace the kit. Since I could­n’t find that same kit, I made my own. Tea Tree oil is a nat­ur­al antivi­ral and antimi­cro­bial. There are a few blogs I fol­low that give recipes on how to make your own clean­ing sup­plies with­out all the tox­ic side-effects of bleach and chlo­rine. Ama­zon has the dark-col­ored glass trav­el bot­tles that are the per­fect size to store and trav­el with these life-pro­mot­ing and bac­te­ria-killing oils. The glass needs to be dark because light breaks down the oils.

 

 

When I first arrive in my row, I take out all the stuff I’m going to need to make my spot as clean as pos­si­ble. I spray my essen­tial oil based dis­in­fec­tant all over my tray, my arm rests, the head­rest, the touch­able TV screen and the belt buck­le. Then I’ll use an organ­ic wet wipe to wipe the liq­uid off. These are also great after you go to the bath­room because that plane water has also been test­ed to have tons of bac­te­ria so the water that wash­es your hands is nasty too (wait to have that cof­fee or tea until you get where you’re going please!). Also, this is great to have around for sticky, dirty hands since the san­i­tiz­ing lotion just spreads the dirt around. I repeat­ed this with the rest of the fam­i­ly’s seat­ing area too. If I’m fly­ing solo, I ask my seat­mates if they’d like my spray.

I recent­ly pur­chased a tray cov­er but haven’t used it yet. It looks good and seems like a great option. I’d still spray every­thing else down though.

Also, a recent new dis­cov­ery is an airlplane seat cov­er. Yes, a pair of African-Amer­i­can sis­ters invent­ed an anti-micro­bial slip­cov­er called Slum­ber Bliss that goes over your air­plane, bus or train seat so you don’t have to share germs with the last five pas­sen­gers who sat in your seat before you.

 

 

Spray More and Hydrate

 

Our pedi­a­tri­cian turned us on to a saline nasal spray with xyl­i­tol called Xlear. The saline mois­tur­izes your nose as air trav­el can be noto­ri­ous­ly dehy­drat­ing. The xyl­i­tol pre­vents germs from stick­ing to your mucus mem­branes. So, you know all that crap float­ing around? It won’t stick to your nasal pas­sages. I squirt it as I sit down in my seat a cou­ple times and right before or after I’m about to get off the plane. Xyl­i­tol based chew­ing gum and lol­lipops are also great for equal­iz­ing the ears and pre­vent­ing cav­i­ties. Yep, you read that right. Xyl­i­tol has tons of health ben­e­fits. It’s also used as a sweet­en­er and could help you lose/maintain your weight.

 

 

 

Pro­Tip: The kids (or any­one actu­al­ly) won’t want to use your nasal spray after you no mat­ter how many times you show them that you’ve san­i­tized the tip with your organ­ic wet wipes. I found it eas­i­er to make a per­son­al hygiene kit for every­one that includes an anti-micro­bial tooth­brush and trav­el tooth­paste for long flights.

 

If you’re feel­ing real­ly anx­ious about fly­ing, germs or the coro­n­avirus, med­i­ta­tion and deep breath­ing might help. A cou­ple shots from the liquor cart might do it too. (Don’t for­get, stress destroys the immune sys­tem.)

 

 

 

 

Don’t Miss! Trav­el In Time: Tips to Help the elder­ly Cope with Coronavirus

 

 

Off the Plane

 

Homeopathic Remedies

Before Allopa­thy became a thing in the med­ical world, Home­opa­thy cured many of the ail­ments pre­sent­ed in soci­ety. Unlike the list of side-effects asso­ci­at­ed with pre­scrip­tion drug com­mer­cials (that read as long as the com­mer­cial itself), there aren’t any with home­o­path­ic reme­dies. There also isn’t much prof­it from sell­ing them since they’re inexpensive.…and effec­tive. So for an indus­try that goes into a lot of debt with the amount of school­ing it requires to prac­tice it, it’s not an attrac­tive option. But for those of us who actu­al­ly want a rem­e­dy that works, with­out side-effects, it’s per­fect. I bought a home­o­path­ic trav­el kit from Wash­ing­ton Home­o­pathics and, after being treat­ed a few times by a cou­ple dif­fer­ent prac­ti­tion­ers so I under­stood a bit how it works, I bought a book on how to diag­nose my ail­ments and use the reme­dies effi­cient­ly. I’m still learn­ing but friends have been amazed at how effec­tive the reme­dies actu­al­ly are. I have one friend who had gone to doc­tors for six weeks try­ing to fig­ure out her head cold and after tak­ing a home­o­path­ic rem­e­dy, her head cleared in 10 min­utes. Any­way, I’m not try­ing to con­vince you to give up what you’re com­fort­able with, I’m expos­ing you to new ideas to sup­ple­ment your exist­ing base of knowl­edge. In case this is a new idea.

If you don’t want to invest in the kit, the two things I car­ry with me in every purse I own (because they’re so inex­pen­sive, it’s easy to stock up for con­ve­nience) are Arni­ca Mon­tana for bruis­es (because, boys…) and Sov­er­eign Sil­ver Col­loidal Sil­ver for scrapes (.…because boys…). Before antibi­otics were invent­ed, they used col­loidal sil­ver. It’s impor­tant to get a rep­utable brand, how­ev­er, because some for­mu­la­tions are processed in unsafe ways.

If you’d like to be a bit more pre­pared I got this list from the Asso­ci­a­tion of Accred­it­ed Natur­o­path­ic Med­ical Col­leges web­site and it appears pret­ty good based on com­mon com­plaints we’ve expe­ri­enced out in the world.

• Arni­ca mon­tana – trau­mas, bruis­es, sore­ness, aches.
• Arsenicum album – food poi­son­ing sce­nar­ios involv­ing diar­rhea, vom­it­ing, chilliness.
• Bel­ladon­na – high and sud­den intense fevers. Dilat­ed pupils, red­ness, heat with no sweating.
• Fer­rum phos­pho­ricum – high fevers with chills, rosy cheeks; may not act or feel acute­ly sick.
• Nux vom­i­ca – diges­tive upset due to overindulging in foods or alco­hol; headaches, constipation.
• Aconi­tum napel­lus – any phys­i­cal or emo­tion­al ail­ments from sud­den fright or get­ting chilled — this also pre­vents you from get­ting sick if you’re around those that are.
• Can­tharis – sun­burns, UTIs with scald­ing and bloody drops of urine.
• Coc­cu­lus indi­cus – motion sick­ness, jet lag, time zone changes, insomnia.
• Ledum – insect bites or blunt trau­ma, relieved by cold application.
• Apis – insect bites, hives, aller­gic reac­tions; with swelling, red­ness and heat; relieved by cold.

 

 

Now, if you’ve nev­er worked with a home­o­path­ic prac­ti­tion­er or doc­tor, it might be a good idea to do that first so you get an idea of how it works. But for non-life threat­en­ing mal­adies, these are a great choice. (Always con­sult your med­ical prac­ti­tion­er, though, before under­tak­ing any new type of treat­ment. Though you might want to select some­one who knows some­thing about this stuff before form­ing an opin­ion .…look­ing at you Dr. C!)

 

 

 

How to Avoid the Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Other Ways to Boost Your Immune System

This virus attacks the lungs first so you need some­thing that pro­tects and does bat­tle against germs there first. I learned about this Himalayan Salt Inhaler from my moth­er-in-law who is bat­tling can­cer. It’s like being in a salt room in your house and cleans out your res­pi­ra­to­ry sys­tem from the inside with no drugs and it does­n’t require elec­tric­i­ty to work so you can use it any­where. After using it, you real­ize how much clear­er your res­pi­ra­to­ry sys­tem feels, even if it did­n’t feel like it was inflamed. I like this brand because it comes in a vari­ety of col­ors so you could get one for each mem­ber of your fam­i­ly, if you want, and be able to tell them apart.

Lis­ten, there’s also noth­ing like hav­ing a sol­id immune sys­tem that does all the fight­ing for you. The peo­ple that die from the reg­u­lar flu are peo­ple with com­pro­mised immune sys­tems, old­er peo­ple with under­ly­ing med­ical con­di­tions, peo­ple with res­pi­ra­to­ry ail­ments and babies. So if that’s not you, don’t wor­ry about it.

Also! Guess what? Most kids are asymp­to­matic with Coro­n­avirus. In fact, the symp­toms and dura­tion of Coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) are most mild with babies! You can keep an eye on the progress of world­wide infes­ta­tion here.  Remem­ber, stress caus­es your immune sys­tem to weaken.

 

Here’s how to keep your immune sys­tem strong:

• Take Elder­ber­ry gum­mies (or syrup but gum­mies are eas­i­er when you trav­el) — Elder­ber­ry has been shown in tons of stud­ies to be more effec­tive at fight­ing flu (and colds) than the vac­cines and also way more effec­tive at treat­ing them vs. Tam­i­flu — with no side-effects that drugs some­time pro­duce. If you’re super inspired here’s a home­made elder­ber­ry recipe you can use.
• It starts as a sore throat — an Oregano Oil / Olive Leaf tinc­ture will kill some virus­es in your throat.
• Sleep — the above home­o­path­ic reme­dies may work to get your body to inte­grate into a new time zone so you could get the sleep you need to stay well. We’ve also used mela­tonin to stim­u­late our body’s nat­ur­al desire to sleep (espe­cial­ly to com­bat the nat­ur­al excite­ment of being in front of a TV screen on a plane for hours). Also, I found an app at the Los Ange­les Trav­el and Adven­ture Show called Uplift that resets your body clock through acu­pres­sure. It total­ly works. I’ve told tons of peo­ple about it. Invent­ed by a sci­en­tist who was tired of jet-lag (lol), so he found a way around it.
• Juice Plus or anoth­er good whole food sup­ple­ment high in vit­a­min C — we’ve been tak­ing this since Kaleb turned four and I com­plained to our pedi­a­tri­cian that he was always get­ting sick and mak­ing me sick since I nev­er got enough sleep because I was still nurs­ing Knox. These are 33 fruits and veg­eta­bles and fruits, juiced and dehy­drat­ed. They come in gum­mies and cap­sules. I buy it for our par­ents too so have an account with the com­pa­ny if you want to try it.
• Water — You nev­er know how clean your water is if you’re trav­el­ing in anoth­er coun­try. Hell, you don’t know how clean your water in in THIS coun­try. Unless you read the water qual­i­ty report, which I’ve done and why I now buy bot­tled water that comes in glass jugs. Water flush­es tox­ins from your sys­tem and it’s essen­tial that you have a good source. One option is a reusable water bot­tle that fil­ters the bac­te­ria and virus­es from the local water sup­ply. The GRAYL Ultra­light Water Puri­fi­er + Fil­ter Bot­tle even fil­ters nasty chem­i­cals you should­n’t be drink­ing like flu­o­ride and chlo­rine. Plus, if you keep buy­ing plas­tic bot­tles, you might start feel­ing guilty about it, you might think of the BPA going into your body and you might run out of water in the mid­dle of the night!
• Pro­bi­otics — Most of your immune sys­tem is cen­tral­ized in the gut and how you process food direct­ly impacts what your body gets or does­n’t get out of it. A good pro­bi­ot­ic — which nat­u­ral­ly pop­u­lates your gut with the healthy bac­te­ria it needs to oper­ate effec­tive­ly — is essen­tial in our processed food world. I used to LOVE the VSL#3 pro­bi­ot­ic and would seri­ous­ly have a crowd gath­ered around me at par­ties as I extolled its insane effi­ca­cy. But, alas, like all good things, it had to end. They were vic­tims of their own suc­cess and tore each oth­er down as their prof­its went up. I have yet to find one I like as much but I do use this one and it’s the best I’ve found so far. But I get mine from Sprouts and not Ama­zon because they have to be refrig­er­at­ed. Maybe they ship it in a cold pack? I’m look­ing for one I can take when I trav­el and this site has some great tips.

 

 

Here’s some addi­tion­al tips from the CDC to pre­vent infec­tion. Oh, and don’t for­get to wash your hands (just not on a plane, ewww!).

If you’ve found a way that keeps your fam­i­ly healthy when you trav­el, I’d love for you to share it with every­one by leav­ing your advice below. Thanks so much for your time!

Dis­claimer: I just became an affil­i­ate for the Ama­zon web­site since, as a mom, it’s the most fre­quent way I shop now and it’s also how I rec­om­mend prod­ucts to friends that I’m using and love. You can’t hold back my love. Yet, I’m not an affil­i­ate of any of the oth­er prod­ucts I rec­om­mend­ed except Juice Plus.

Dis­claimer two: I’m not a doc­tor and this isn’t med­ical advice. This is me, shar­ing what I’ve learned and some of the resources that con­tributed to that knowl­edge. Please vis­it a home­o­path­ic doc­tor or a natur­opath or an MD to get more detailed advice for your spe­cif­ic condition.

 

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