Category Archives: Health

Health, Travel

How to beat jet lag

I have just flown from Maui to London Heathrow, and I am NOT jet lagged. How did I do it?

I’ve been refining my strategy over many years, trying tips and tricks from other elite travelers, bloggers, and sleep researchers.

What you can expect from this article

If you follow all of the steps to the letter, you can expect to arrive fresh and fully adjusted. If you follow about half of the steps, including fasting, you can expect to arrive tired but functional. If you do one or two steps but don’t fast, expect to feel wrecked.

A little more about me and the strategies

I developed my “easting” strategies from a combination of data from the Harvard Sleep Center and many years of flying eastward. Specifically, I am a half-million-miler on two different airlines with over one million miles of “non-rev” frequent flier flights. My strategies for beating jet lag are hard-won.

Fast for 12 Hours

1. Fast for 12 hours before breakfast in the new time zone. Fasting resets the body’s circadian clock, according to a growing body of research at the Salk Institute. Fasting is the best weapon to beat jet lag. If you take only one strategy, fasting is the most effective. Fasting means no eating, alcohol, or caffeine. Sip only hydrating liquids.

How to plan your 12-hour fast

My flight was scheduled to land at 8 am at Heathrow. This means that breakfast on the plane is served around 7 AM UT. A quick check on Google shows 7 AM UT occurs at 12 AM PST. Subtract 12 hours for the beginning of the fast. So I ate my meal, a big lunch at 12 PM PST (12 AM – 12 hours = 12 PM, which was actually 2 PM CST because I was already en route in Dallas).

Hydrate Properly

2. Hydrate with oral rehydration solution (WHO recipe). Mix into a 16-ounce bottle: 12 oz water, 4 oz high potassium juice (like coconut water, OJ, or apple juice), and 1/8 tsp salt (approximately one small to-go-sized salt packet). Proper hydration helps the body fight fatigue.

Alternatively, you can buy pre-mixed packets of oral rehydration salts to mix into a liter of water. Any oral rehydration salt, which follows the WHO guidelines, will work just fine. I use Tri Oral, Normal Lyte, and Recover ORS.

AVOID ALL caffeine and alcohol because these dehydrate and fatigue the body. If you need to calm jitter pre-flight nerves, try a low- dose of a muscle relaxer or anti-anxiety medication (talk to your doctor about these).

Sleep/Rest As Much As Possible

3. At wheels up, close the shades, turn off screens, take 2 melatonin (tells the body its evening), and take a muscle relaxer.

Avoid screens–including movies, smartphones, and backlit readers–because they emit blue light, which tells the body it is morning. The whole point of these strategies is to convince the body that it is nighttime, no matter where you happen to be. So avoid all screens until breakfast. This is often the hardest step for people. It helps to bring a slightly boring paperback. Goodreads has a book list called “Books I never finished because I fell asleep.” Perfect. Consider the Ink Spell Series.

4. If possible, pony up for a lay-flat seat (this time, I scored comfy pajamas!) and sleep as much as possible on the flight. This means ignoring the meal service and movies, which is very hard after you’ve ponied up for a better seat. I max out frequent flyer miles for upgrading.

Eat a Big Breakfast in Your New Time Zone

5. Eat a big breakfast before landing. I ask the flight attendant to save my dinner and combine it with breakfast.

Congratulations! You’ve practiced self-discipline to improve your travel experience and gain an extra day (or more) of enjoyment. Enjoy feeling fresh in your new time zone.

Family, Health, Lifestyle

Pet ownership in Hawaii higher than Mainland

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Owning a cat or dog improves people’s health, according to decades of research. The major benefits include lower stress and better cardiovascular health (at least for dog walkers). Almost half the population in the US receives these benefits: 39% of households have at least one dog and 33% of households have at least one cat, reports US Pet Statistics, a site run by the Humane Society.

On O’ahu pet ownership is higher than the Mainland, with at least 60% of households owning a dog or cat (not counting the strays that people feed), says Jacque LeBlanc, community relations director at the Hawaii Humane Society. Survey data for the other islands is not currently available, but estimates suggest pet ownership rates are comparable.

Those of us lucky to live in Hawaii already expect longer, healthier lives than our Mainland counterparts by as much as three years. Compared to the rest of the world, Hawaii ranks fifth for longest life expectancy (averaging 80.8 years; it’s a coincidence that  808 is also our area code). Higher rates of pet ownership might contribute.

Health, Travel

Vaccines for travel to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo and the Amazon

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I was lucky enough to travel recently for the first time to Brazil and the Amazon. After negotiating the complex travel visa process, I learned from the Brazilian Consulate that I also need a vaccine for yellow fever, which is a virus endemic to most of South American and Africa, according to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Do I have to get vaccinated for yellow fever?

Without the yellow fever vaccine, I could have been denied entry into Brazil, according to the Brazilian Consulate. However, vaccination is not a requirement to enter any country, according to the CDC, so denied entry was unlikely, especially to modern cities like Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paolo. Further, I received my tourist Visa from the Brazilian Consulate without proof of vaccination.

In short, no, a vaccine is not required to enter Rio, Sao Paolo or other major cities in Brazil. However, it is recommended.

Map of yellow fever zone in South America

What are the risks of skipping the vaccine?

The risk of actually contracting the yellow fever virus is lower in South American than Africa, according to the CDC. However, unvaccinated travelers risk developing the horrible skin disease marked by pussy yellow, blistering boils spread by mosquito bites in infected areas. Somewhere between 10% to 90% of US travelers don’t get the vaccine. All of the cases of yellow fever in the US are brought back by these people. I didn’t want to be one of them.

Since we planned to visit the Amazon, vaccination seemed like a sensible preventive measure. So I made some calls to local health care clinics to set an appointment. Of the five major health care clinics on Maui, only two offer international travel vaccines: Kaiser Permanente and Dr. Chad Meyer. Kaiser only treats members. Fortunately, Dr. Meyer sees everyone else.

You might have to call around to find a doctor that specializes in travel medicine in order to get vaccinated for yellow fever.

What else do I need to know about the yellow fever vaccine?

Here’s a summary of what my doctor told me about the vaccine for the yellow fever virus:

  • Vaccine against the yellow fever virus must be given 3 weeks before travel to affected areas in order to be effective.
  • The vaccine is a single injection of 0.5 mL of reconstituted virus. In other words, it’s a live virus vaccine.
  • Side effects could include fever, pain, swelling and yellow fever. (Yuck!) But immunity, once developed, is lifelong.(Yay!)
Yellow fever virus transmitted through mosquitos producing pussy boils

Dr. Meyer also recommended that I receive vaccinations for additional diserases:

The total cost for these vaccines, plus the office visit to review traveler’s health tips, cost about $500 cash.

Have you been vaccinated? If so, please reply and tell us about your experience with the vaccine, yellow fever or travel to endemic areas.

Hawaii resources for international travel vaccines:

  • Kaiser Permanente, Travel Medicine Department — (808) 243-6000
  • Dr. Chad Meyer, Maui Travel Medicine — (808) 573-5088
  • O’ahu has more resources than Maui, including Kaiser, Queen’s and Straub clinics.
  • On Kauai and the Big Island, area hospital clinics have the vaccines.