Salmonella. E. coli. The influenza virus. We’re surrounded by a stew of infectious crud that’s just waiting for the opportunity to invade our bodies and wreak havoc when we travel.
Remember that recent business trip when your stomach was doing flip-flops during a sales call? Say “thank you” to the peanut butter cracker you ate after lunch … or was is the spinach salad you had for dinner?
How about the dream vacation that you spent in the opulent comfort of your hotel room, so sick you didn’t care that you missed the once-in-a-lifetime tour of (fill in the blank here). Say “thank you” to whatever you touched the previous 24 hours: the gray bin at security where you put your personal items, the air flow nozzle on the airplane, the pen you used at hotel check-in and the TV remote or water glass in that same hotel.
I once consulted for a major resort hotel and was shocked when the general manager confided in me that they didn’t cleanse the water glasses after rooms were vacated. We’ve all seen those hidden camera reports about how hotel rooms are “cleaned,” and they’re true!
Heck, some airlines are now touting their renewed efforts to clean planes as a strategy to entice customers. Nothing wrong with that, as long as they combine this strategy with accurate baggage handling, on-time departures and smiling employees.
If you want to stay healthy, consider the following strategies:
1) Eat food that only you have personally grown and prepared.
2) Never, ever touch anything in your hotel room, or on the airplane and just hope the little critters lingering on every surface will ignore you.
3) Take gallons of hand sanitizer on every trip.
4) Keep a positive mental outlook … it is like a magic shield against illness.
To paraphrase Hippocrates: “Some patients recover their health simply through their contentment.”
Doug Lipp is the author of Stuck in the Middle Seat.
