Staying Healthy While Traveling

Hi, I’m Dr. Emily Parke. In today’s Functional Health Minute, I’d like to talk about my travel regimen for staying healthy. So I just got back from a trip to the East Coast, and I thought I would share with you what I do to keep myself healthy every time I travel. Because obviously airports and airplanes, lots of people, lots of traffic, lots of opportunities for germs and transmission of germs.

So here’s what I do every single time I travel. So I always have with me a portable hand sanitizer of some kind. This can be picked up anywhere, like Whole Foods or Sprouts, of course you can Amazon it too. But this company, CleanWell, also has some really good wipes. They have even a travel pack of wipes, which I will bring with me also. So constantly making sure the hands are, sanitize anytime I touch anything public.

Then of course, generally as far as hand-washing goes, just make sure really good hand washing and just not, trying not to touch your face too much with your hands. It sounds a little weird, but if you think about it logically, the ways that you get a cold or a flu, it’s usually transmitted through your mucus membranes, right? So your hand, it touches something and then you touch your eye or your nose or something around your mouth, and then that’s how it gets transmitted. And of course through actual bodily fluids, so if someone sneezes on you or coughs on you and whatnot. Again, when it comes into contact own mucus membranes, then you have the chance of getting that illness. So good hand washing and bringing with you a portable hand sanitizer I found to be really helpful.

So before I go to the airport, and sometimes right as I arrive, there’s a couple things that I do. So I will actually do a few sprays of this Biocidin Throat Spray. I think there’s a really good study from this company that shows that it increases something called secretory IgA by about 30%, it’s actually a little more than 30%, by usage of it. And so that’s really important. It’s an herbal antimicrobial, meaning it’s good for bacterias, viruses, and yeasts. And I actually use a different version of this to treat lots of different infections and overgrowths in functional medicine. So this Biocidin Throat Spray, do a few sprays before I go to the airport.

And then the second thing I do that’s topical is this nasal spray. This is a silver hydrosol nasal spray, and I’ll do two, one to two sprays in each nostril before I go in. And silver is antimicrobial. Even in traditional medicine, they will use dressings that have silver in them to prevent wound infections and leave it. Sometimes put it on catheters that go inside veins and whatnot, central line catheters, to help prevent infection. So I will do a little bit of silver hydrosol in each nostril. So that way now I’ve got protection in my nostrils, and I’ve got protection in my throat. You can purchase these sprays here.

And then I will also always do a dose of glutathione. So glutathione is your body’s main antioxidant and detoxifier. So I always do a dose of liposomal glutathione. Again, right before the airport or in the airport even sometimes. Purchase glutathione here using the code PARDO.

So that is my prevent cold, flus, viruses of any kind travel regimen. And some of these products are actually part of what I recommend for colds and flus, which I’m going to talk about in a future Health Minute. This is Dr. Emily Parke with your Health Minute for today. If you’re interested in checking out functional medicine in the Phoenix, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Arizona area, call to book an appointment at 602 892-4727 or fill out our contact form. If you’re not local to us, check out  7 Weeks to Your Healthiest Self – my masterclass that provides you with the foundational benefits of functional medicine – from the comfort and privacy of your own home.