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Holiday Travel
December 18, 2007
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In the coming days
many of you will be traveling far and wide to spend the
holidays with family and friends. Dr. Alan Tannenbaum is a physician
with Lee Memorial Health System. He says, “This is the time of year where we all travel. This is the holiday season. And with travel there are certain inherent risks that go with that.”
If you’re planning to be in a car or on a plane for several hours, it’s important
to keep your blood circulating and your body moving. “The opportunity to be sitting
and crossing your legs certainly raises the risk of having what we call deep vein
thrombosis or DVT. If you’re on an aircraft usually every few hours it would be
great to stand up and walk the length of the aircraft and come back. If you’re in
a car frequent stops are a must,” says Dr. Tannenbaum. As for preventing that cold
or cough, physicians say that’s nearly impossible to do on an airplane. “If you
happen to be next to a kid that’s sick, you know, how much bad luck you can get.
Because you
know in three or four days whatever the incubation of that virus or
bacteria you’re going to get it as well,” Dr. Tannenbaum adds. That’s mostly because
it’s hard to breathe fresh air when flying the friendly skies. “Airplanes recycle
air on the aircraft. So the person that coughs in the front of the plane is getting
air to the person who’s in the back. There’s not much you can do for that. Some
people where a mask, some people use ozenators around their neck. All you can do
is just wash your hands and try not to get on an aircraft if you’re sick,” advises
Tannenbaum. He also says drinking lots of water, taking a multivitamin, and eating
a balanced
diet will help keep you healthy during your holiday travels. Physicians
also advise you to wear loose fitting clothing and try taking baby aspirin to help
prevent you from getting DVT or blood clots while traveling.
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