The Net is a good resource for information on current travel-health concerns such as SARS and infectious disease outbreaks, where news breaks quickly. But when it comes to handling the day-in, day-out health challenges of life on the road, there’s nothing like a well-researched, in-depth travel-health book as your first line of defense.

Remedies and strategies for preventing and handling problems on the go don’t change every day so you don’t have to worry about outdated information. (Although you should check the publication date of books you’re interested in. With notable exceptions, you’ll want something published recently, say in the last three to five years. But it depends on the content. I’ve got some well-thumbed and still-relevant books that date back to the early ‘90s.) And as frequent travelers can attest, just when you’ve mastered one challenge, there’s always something else. Toting an "all-in-one" reference guide is a terrific investment in your health and well being.

Although there are several terrific general travel-health books (The 762-page Travellers' Health: How to Stay Healthy Abroad, Dawood and Palin, 2002 and The International Travel Health Guide 2001 [12^th Edition] by Stuart Rose, M.D. are the latest editions of two classic travel-health reference books.) and a slew of books that deal with specific aspects of travel health, such as jet lag and fitness, I can’t recommend packing them. The former are too weighty (literally) while the latter are too narrow in their focus to warrant take-along status. But do consider them for your at-home or in-office library. Then you can find what you need and, as many savvy travelers do, photocopy pages with specific info that you need or make your own notes to go.

Concerned about cramping your carry-on style or adding to your luggage? Not to worry. In the last few years, publishers have downsized the physical dimensions of many tomes—without sacrificing depth of content. Several of the most comprehensive (including the "I can’t rave about it enough," 557-plus pages, just-shy-of-12-ounces The Rough Guide to Travel Health) are palm-size and easily carried (in a handbag, carryon, or even a trousers or suit jacket pocket) and packed for quick and ongoing reference. If you’ve got room for a PDA, there’s really no excuse for not including one or two of these guides as part of your personal medical kit.

Here are a few of my current recommendations. I’ll be reviewing additional books in upcoming columns.

Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness and Travel Medicine

The Rough Guide to Travel Health

The Pocket Doctor: A Passport to Healthy Travel

Travel Healthy: The Smart Traveler’s Guide to Staying Well Anywhere

First-Aid Basics: If a medical emergency occurs, you’ll need expert advice—fast. These pocket-size first-aid guidebooks help you quickly identify what immediate action to take.

Unless you’re a trained emergency medical services staffer or someone who has had extensive experience in handling common emergencies, I strongly recommend including this book when you fly. (And if you drive, keep another one in your car.) This slim volume provides illustrated text and how-tos for handling 30 common medical emergencies and injuries.

It steps you through the process—very useful when you’re in the panicked or frozen mode and can’t think or act without prompting. And if you’re the casualty who needs assistance, it could help the person who comes to your aid.

TIP: We all think we’re great in emergencies. And some of us are. But let’s be honest, most of us forget what we know when an emergency arises and having a quick-and-easy tool that we can use ups the chances of a successful outcome.

Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness and Travel Medicine (Eric A. Weiss, M.D.)

A thorough, easy-to-read, 198-page manual—perhaps the next best thing to having a doctor at your side. With sections on the various medical emergencies that can beset business travelers who never find themselves anywhere near the outdoors, it's a must-pack item, particularly for those who travel solo.

Weiss, the Associate Director of Trauma at the Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, CA, and an authority on wilderness and outdoor medicine, includes "Weiss Advice," a series of improvised techniques, the equivalent of on-site guerrilla medical care for the nonprofessional. Tips range from the "tame" (how to irrigate an eye to remove foreign objects or impurities using a plastic bag) to the definitely not-for-the-fainthearted (how to use your own hair to "suture" a wound together).

His "When to Worry" boxes save precious time by quickly alerting you to conditions and situations that require immediate professional attention.

(Dr. Nick Jones)

Of Note: Breadth of content; practical, accessible, well-packaged and organized information; easy-to-use format; multiple ways of accessing content; A to Z illness/risk listings; emphasis on prevention and coping strategies; directory of on- and off-line resources including entries for disabled and special needs travelers; women; children; and adventure travelers; glossary

You won’t have to be an international traveler to appreciate—and use—this amazing travel-health compendium. At a bit under 12 ounces and 4" by 5 ¾" by 1 ¼", this comprehensive tome is smaller and lighter than many portable MP3 and CD players. The combo of pack-easy size and potent content may well make it the only travel-health reference you’ll need—on or off the road.

From its on-target Intro ("Travel can be fraught with health hazards, even the most minor of which can seriously hamper your enjoyment of a trip...But perhaps the biggest danger to the traveller is the assumption that ‘it can’t happen to me.’ ") to its index, this book puts a laser-like focus on travel-health essentials. In four chapters, it manages to cover every conceivable element (and some inconceivable ones) of travel health. That alone would net it a strong recommendation.

But it’s the ease of retrieving its valuable info that also singles it out for attention. Few medical or health books with such a vast amount of information are as easy to navigate. This book was clearly designed with the reader/user in mind: You can quickly find relevant information—even if you’re not sure what you’re looking for.

At 126 pages (the size of some travel-health tomes), the Being Prepared section provides advice and strategy on every aspect of a trip, including recommendations for different types of travelers (seniors, pregnant women, epileptics, diabetics, etc.). Pick a topic and it’s sure to be summarized. This includes the basics (first-aid how-tos, jet lag, fear of flying) as well as specialized topics such as antibiotics and managing blood sugar.

The A-to-Z section, which lists the various illnesses besetting domestic and global travelers, includes overviews, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. (Warning: Even a casual perusal can leave you a bit unnerved. It’s truly amazing how many things you can pick when you wander afar!)

The section opens with a terrific entry on Making a Diagnosis, which discusses the key elements of what can be a lengthy and frustrating process for travelers in terms of identifying the problem and the source.

The Where in the World? section discusses relative risks by country/geographic area and offers recommendations for vaccinations. It’s a quick entry into what can be a confusing subject. (And if you’re uncertain about an area, it provides a quick overview of health risks.)

And lest you fear being overwhelmed by the clinical/medical verbiage, the book is interspersed with personal travel tales of first-hand encounters with some of the diseases and conditions. They won’t lull you to sleep (Unless you’ve got a strong stomach, some of these tales are not a dinner-table read.) but you will know you’re not alone and feel a sense of kinship—and survival.

Going Natural: Alternative medicine is more widely known and used in the UK than the US, so it’s not surprising that homeopathic remedies are included throughout the book. It’s a welcome inclusion for the many travelers who prefer these options. An alternative medicine kit checklist rounds out the traditional recommendations.

TOP

The Pocket Doctor: A Passport to Healthy Travel (Stephen Bezruchka, M.D.)
The physician author is a world traveler who has first-hand knowledge of many of the health concerns he details in the latest (third) edition of this classic reference. If you’ve got little time (or patience), this 126-page book can get you up to speed quickly with chapters that include the basics: Before You Go, Finding Medical Help Abroad, General Health Advice; Common and Less-Common Illnesses; Life-Threatening Emergencies; and the Returning Traveler.

If you’re interested in natural remedies and nontraditional approaches to staying healthy on the go, these two books are essential reads:

The Healthy Traveler:  A Handbook of Easy Solutions for Common Travel Ailments

(Susan W. Kramer, Ph.D., AHG, Esq.)

Of Note: Easy-to-read format; inexpensive, natural remedies (food, herbal, and drugstore); covers common travel ailments; foreign phrase section; chapter summaries; Missing Medicines section; multipurpose remedy suggestions; multi-source research, including medical literature, case studies, and the input of healthcare professionals

I love this book not only for its content but also because it blends medically sound advice with the author’s personal experience. It’s that rare combo: relevant and "real." Reading through it is like having a really smart, savvy and experienced best friend at your side dispensing the "how-tos."

The author (a therapeutic herbalist) draws on Western allopathic medicine and Eastern and Western herbalism and homeopathy in detailing remedies and resources for handling common travel ailments (alphabetical starting with Altitude Sickness and ending with Stiffness). There’s a helpful Foreign Phrases section that includes translations for traditional (broken, bite, bleeding, etc.) and select alternative/integrated medicine references (acupuncture, homeopathic, etc.) in five languages (German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese).

The Making a Travel Kit section reviews what you need by type of natural remedy and why you need it with component lists for either a comprehensive or mini- travel kit.

Spend time in the wilderness? (Which, for us city folk, is anyplace without a 24-hour drugstore and a nearby health food store.) You’ll love the buried nuggets that detail how to cope with say diarrhea (start looking for a weeping willow tree) or indigestion (Where are the yellow birch trees?) and other ailments using nature’s outdoor resources.

TIP: If you want to understand how natural remedies work and learn more about specific solutions for what ails you, this is a great introductory primer. (There’s a Terms section that quickly defines key categories—a real aid for natural-care novices.)

Travel Healthy: The Smart Traveler’s Guide to Staying Well Anywhere (Lalitha Thomas)

Of Note: symptom-remedy index; emphasis on nutrition and healthy eating; Buyer’s Guide that makes it easy to locate recommended items; emphasis on preventive-health measures; Travel Gadgets section; suggestions on how to use different remedies with children; upbeat, personal approach to travel health

The author shares her strategies for achieving her goal of helping you to minimize the "...heath-negative side effects of travel..." using various natural remedies and non-toxic methods. The author clearly feels strongly about following a natural course of treatment and the book’s tone and contents have a strong healthy living focus. (Wisely, the author acknowledges that although many of us say we want to feel better, we may not be ready to implement the changes needed to embrace a healthier lifestyle. This honesty tempers the author’s zeal and approach to her subject matter, which makes it a far less intimidating read for those of us who struggle with less-than-healthy choices—but who really would like to educate ourselves about healthy options.)

The opening chapter, The Smart Traveler’s Health Kit, immediately caught my attention. I thought I pretty much had a handle on every imaginable item to stash. Who knew that I needed clove or peppermint oils? Activated charcoal? Grapefruit seed extract? (Did you know? No, I didn’t think so.) Author Thomas details how these and other items we might not be familiar with can help us cope with common complaints, inconveniences, and emergencies.

Thomas’ book is worth noting for many reasons but I found it especially noteworthy because it delves into topics rarely covered as they relate to travel. These include:

Drinkable Tonics: You don’t have to be European, adventuresome, or on the road to benefit from imbibing the four easy tonics that Thomas includes. They’re terrific restoratives and far better for you than the caffeine or alcohol you may be using now to jumpstart your brain and body when they start to flag.

Comprehensive Travel-Health Planning: There are pre- (starting 10 days before you leave) and post-trip health plans to help you "maximize your strength and stamina." These feature nutrition, supplement, food, and exercise-based suggestions and strategies.

Healthy Eating: There’s a section on travel snacks that provides some solid info and suggestions on healthy alternatives. (Need more stamina? Consider the recommended Power Carob-Mint Spirulina tablets.)

The section on "superfoods," which the author defines as "...live, vegetarian foods with highly potent and rejuvenative qualities" may not send you rushing to a health food store for raw herbs, sea vegetables, bee pollen, or wheat grass juice. Then again, if you really are serious about upping your strength, stamina, and overall well being, you just might want to give them a try.◄

Have a favorite travel-health book? E-mail me and let me know how it's helped improve your health and well being.

UPDATED LINKS
Every effort is made to provide current, working links. However, given the nature of the Web and the frequency of change on individual sites, some links may not be available. If you can't find a noted resource or you find an error, please e-mail The Wellness Concierge®. I'll correct errors and provide you with updated information, where available.
 

DISCLAIMER
The material you see here is provided for information purposes only and is not a substitute for consulting a healthcare professional.