4 Ways to Avoid the Common Cold During Holiday Travel

Consider this your warning: these tips are not designed to make you look stylish or fun. In fact, you might think some of these tips are overkill. That’s normal.

But if you actually want to make it through an airport without breathing in the collective germs of millions of harried, exhausted, immuno-compromised travelers, then you’ll need to value your health over your appearance for just a few hours. We promise it will be worth it.

#1: Wear a Medical Face Mask

Remember those masks everyone wore when SARS was a threat? Those are actually famously effective at keeping your body from accidentally breathing in germs and viruses. After all, these are the masks surgeons use while working on patients.

They serve two purposes:

1. They keep you from breathing in everyone else’s germs.
2. They keep your germs to yourself—which is a favor to everyone else.

#2: Drink a Glass of Water Every 1.5 Hours

Drinking water in general is a great practice, but if you’re normally the type of person who hovers near “dehydrated,” drinking water is extra important while traveling. Constantly ingesting fluids and flushing them out of your body keeps your immune system humming at peak levels. If you’re peeing a lot, that’s a good sign—it means what’s staying in your body is supposed to stay in your body.

The classic 8 glasses a day is a little bit daunting for people who don’t normally drink a lot of water daily—instead, drink a glass of water every hour-and-a-half or so.

#3: Put 9 Hours of Sleep on the Calendar

Okay, we know this isn’t always completely under your control, but block out time for sleeping. Consider it an appointment that you need to keep with yourself—if you put it on your calendar, that’s sacred. No one else can touch it, and no other plans can take that space.

The reason we aim for 9 hours? Because we always know there’s last-minute travel tasks, aiming for 9 hours allows us to get at least 7.5 (which is good enough).

#4: Buy a Travel-Size Pack of Disinfecting Wipes

The surfaces at airports, bus stops, and train stations are as bad as bathrooms sometimes. Bring wipes for arm rests, tables, and any other surfaces you come into contact with. You might look a little OCD, but that’s okay. While everyone else is wondering what you’re doing, they’re caught in skin-to-skin contact with millions upon millions of viruses and bacteria.

Avoiding that is a good trade-off for looking a little eccentric.

Need medicine to keep yourself functional through the holidays? Set up an appointment with your Orlando ear nose throat doctor at Florida ENT today! Offices serving Orlando and Kissimmee.